Desun plans to open a medical college near Calcutta, project to offer 250 MBBS seats
Telegraph | 18 November 2025
A new private medical college with 250 MBBS seats is set to come up on the fringes of Calcutta.
Desun Hospital will set up the college near Dankuni along the Durgapur Expressway (National Highway 19). The medical college will be a component of the Desun Health City project, which will also include a 1,500-bed hospital.
“The first phase will be operational by mid-2028, and the full project will be completed by 2030. The campus will also house Desun University, where engineering, skill development and other non-medical courses will be taught,” said Shaoli Dutta, CEO and group director, Desun Hospital.
The hospital recently received Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation, considered the global benchmark in healthcare.
Dutta added that the project is being developed on 585 acres of land at an estimated cost of ₹1,100 crore.
Bengal needs more medical colleges because the state does not produce enough doctors. “The number of MBBS seats has increased significantly since 2011 (when Mamata Banerjee became chief minister), but the gap between demand and supply continues to be large,” said a senior health department official.
According to him, Bengal had 1,350 MBBS seats in 2011. Today, the state has around 6,500 seats across 40 medical colleges. “But the National Medical Commission says Bengal should have 10,000 MBBS seats. We remain short of that target,” the official said.
The shortage is felt most strongly in peripheral healthcare facilities. “Block and sub-division hospitals feel the crunch more than the bigger medical colleges. These facilities don’t require superspecialists; so more MBBS seats would bridge the gap,” another official said.
Government-run hospitals currently have around 3,000 vacant doctor posts, officials said. “We are in the process of recruiting,” one of them said.
Education consultants said the number of medical aspirants heading abroad for MBBS has declined because of geopolitical tensions and stricter National Medical Commission (NMC) rules. “Five years ago, nearly 3,000 students from Bengal went abroad annually to countries like Ukraine, Georgia, China, Russia, Nepal and Bangladesh. Now, the number is substantially lower,” said Poulomi Dutta, director of Trailblazers Consultants, which guides students seeking overseas education.
The NMC now mandates that an MBBS programme abroad must include at least 54 months of academic study plus a 12-month mandatory internship at the same institution. Students must also obtain a valid medical licence from the country where they study to be eligible for registration in India. “The norms are stricter for those appearing for the foreign medical graduate exam,” added Dutta.
Public health expert Abhijit Chowdhury said: “Increasing MBBS seats is important, but the government must also ensure quality control and proper regulation.”