Two new private medical colleges, 1300 more medical posts for Karnataka

The new building of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College & Research Institute, is under construction at Shivajinagar, Bengaluru. | Photo credit: File Photo

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has approved two private medical colleges for the state for 2026-27 and has approved expansion of a total of 1,300 seats.

The NMC has approved private colleges Alva’s Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center (AIMSRC), Dakshina Kannada district, with a total capacity of 150 seats, and Chettinad Institute of Medical Education and Research (CIMER), BEML Nagar, KGF, Kolar district, with a capacity of 100 seats.

This brings the total number of medical colleges in Karnataka to 75 this year, including 24 government medical colleges and 51 private medical colleges. Last year, 73 medical faculties were operating.

This year, the state NMC submitted a proposal to set up six medical colleges, including three new government medical colleges at Ramanagara, Kanakapura and Bagalkot and three private colleges – Reddy Jan Sangha Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Bengaluru, Alva Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Dakshina Kannada district and KGF Institute of Medical Education (Chetinad Institute of Medical Education).

However, due to insufficient infrastructure, non-recruitment of human resources and other reasons, the NMC approved only two private colleges.

Expansion by 1300 seats

For the current academic year, NMC has provided a total of 9,911 seats for undergraduate medical courses (MBBS) across the country, including a total of 1,300 medical seats for Karnataka.

Of these, 150 seats were sanctioned to government medical colleges in the state, while 1,150 seats were given to private medical colleges.

This year, a total of 15,395 medical posts are available in 75 medical colleges in the state. Last year, 14,095 places were available from 73 medical faculties.

This made Karnataka the state with the highest number of medical posts in the country. Uttar Pradesh has a total of 88 medical colleges with 14,000 seats. Maharashtra has 84 medical colleges with 13,099 seats available. Tamil Nadu has 78 medical colleges with 13,999 medical seats.

Speaking to The Hindu, BL Sujatha Rathod, Director, Directorate of Medical Education said, “An additional 1,300 medical seats have been allotted to the state by the NMC this year, taking the total number of seats to over 15,000. This has made Karnataka the state with the highest number of medical seats in the country. 6 medical seat allotment results for NEET-20 have been released recently. Medical Seat Matrix will be submitted to the Karnataka Investigation Agency (KEA) soon.

Published – 19 Jul 2026 20:36 IST