The Karnataka government had earlier announced the establishment of two new medical colleges in Ramanagara and Kanakapura taluks of Bengaluru South district. However, there is uncertainty over the proposed medical college at Ramanagara as the state cabinet has given approval only to the medical college to be set up at Kanakapura.
In a recent cabinet meeting, the state government gave administrative approval to Kanakapura Medical College with autonomous status and 150 undergraduate (MBBS) seats. The project, which will cost about ₹ 550 crore, will include a medical college, a 300-bed hospital, boys’ and girls’ hostels, quarters for teaching and non-teaching staff and other facilities. The entire cost of the project will be borne by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).
Plans to set up a government medical college in Kanakapur have seen many political twists and turns. The previous BJP government shifted the medical college which was earlier approved for Kanakapura to Chikkaballapur. However, the Congress government is constantly trying to set up a government medical college in Kanakapura, the home ground of Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
The college, which was to be built on the Ramanagara campus designed by RGUHS, was shifted to Kanakapura by the government in 2023-24. However, due to strong public opposition, the state government announced to set up two government medical colleges separately at Ramanagara and Kanakapura.
After deciding to set up medical colleges at Ramanagara in collaboration with the district hospital and at Kanakapura in collaboration with the taluk hospital, the government submitted the proposal to the National Medical Commission (NMC). However, the government’s proposal was rejected due to insufficient infrastructure and non-appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff in 2024-25.
In 2025-26, an application was submitted to establish the proposed dormitories without appointing the necessary number of teaching staff – the NMK again rejected the proposal.
After this failure, the state government decided to set up a medical college with autonomous status only in Kanakapur.
‘at least two years’
Speaking to The Hindu, Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil said, “Tenders will be floated soon and construction work will begin. It will take at least two years to complete the work. After that, a proposal will be submitted to the NMC seeking approval to start operations of the college.”
Dr. Patil further said that since the Kanakapur taluk hospital does not have a 300-bed capacity, it is not possible to set up a medical college in collaboration with that hospital. “Therefore, the college will open only after both the dormitories and the hospital are completed,” he added.
Plans for Ramanagara
“The proposal to set up a medical college in Ramanagara has been rejected three times due to lack of staff recruitment and necessary infrastructure. Construction work on the new campus of RGUHS in Ramanagara is already in full swing and the medical college will be ready by January 2026. We will recruit the necessary staff and next year in collaboration with the district hospital will open a medical college in Ramanagara,” added Dr. He suffered.
The government has taken steps to set up a new medical college in Bagalkot as well, the minister said. “A proposal in this regard will be placed before the NMC next year. Besides, as announced in the 2025-26 budget, a decision has been taken to build NIMHANS-style mental health hospitals at Mysuru and Kalaburagi at a cost of ₹ 100 crore each and administrative approval for the same will be sought in the next meeting of the Dr. Patin government.”
Published – 26 Oct 2025 21:49 IST
