Mumbai: Medical aspirants in the state will have at least 200 more seats to choose from this year. While 150 seats will be coming up in a newly approved private medical college in Aurangabad, 50 have been added to the Government Medical College (GMC) on Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) campus in Nashik.Of the new private medical colleges approved by National Medical Commission (NMC) this year, one is from Maharashtra. Shiva Trust, based in Aurangabad, which runs nursing, physiotherapy and Ayurved colleges, among others, has received NMC’s nod to start a new medical college, BSP Medical College and Hospital, with 150 seats from this academic year.While the NMC approval has come through, the trust is awaiting the release of a state govt resolution. “Once the GR is out, the MUHS inspection will be carried out and the seats will be added to the seat matrix. We are hoping that all the approvals are in before the counselling process starts this year in the second week of Aug,” said Balasaheb Pawar, president, Shiva Trust. This will be the fourth college in Aurangabad, which currently has one govt, one private and a deemed medical college. The college has already recruited some teachers and some are in the process, said Pawar. It has an attached hospital with a capacity of 605 beds.The total seats in MBBS in Maharashtra, including govt, private and all-India quota seats, currently are at 10,028. The addition of the 200 new seats will take the total intake capacity to 10,228.This year, the central govt has given approval to 25 new medical colleges, including govt and privately run ones. These approvals have led to an increase in the intake capacity across the country by over 2,000 seats.
