Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Tuesday sought the intervention of Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda to set up a new medical college in the state, officials in the chief minister’s office said. In a meeting held in New Delhi with the Union health minister, Saha discussed issues such as the setting up of a medical college at Kulai in Dhalai district in a public-private partnership, a tertiary ophthalmology hospital at Agartala, and an immunology laboratory for organ transplant services at Agartala Government Medical College and GBP Hospital. Tripura has three medical colleges—Agartala Government Medical College; Tripura Medical College, run by a society constituted by the state government; and Tripura Santiniketan Medical College, a private institution. The chief minister requested Nadda to allocate funds to procure advanced medical equipment at Agartala Government Medical College's super-speciality block and additional funds for Ayushman Bharat–Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana in order to settle the pending claims. "We are trying to hike the seat capacity of Agartala Government Medical College. The National Medical Commission gave permission for 150 seats, out of which 118 are for students of Tripura, 22 for nominees of the Central Government, and the rest 10 are for the northeast region for 2025-26," Saha had said earlier. At present, 525 students are pursuing MBBS at Agartala Government Medical College. Agartala Government Dental College, which began with 50 seats, was later upgraded to have 63 seats.
