The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) to establish a 100-seat medical college at Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi. The project is planned under a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
If executed, the proposed college would be Mumbai’s seventh civic-run medical institution and the first such facility in the eastern suburbs, a region long underserved in terms of public medical education. Chandrakant Pawar, Chief Medical Superintendent of BMC’s peripheral hospitals, confirmed that the civic body is awaiting responses to the EOI. The initiative is expected to not only increase medical seat availability but also improve healthcare services in the region.  Mumbai currently hosts two state-run medical colleges — Grant Medical College and St. George Medical College — and four others managed by the BMC, attached to KEM, Sion, Nair, and Cooper hospitals.
Additionally, new government colleges have been launched in Ambernath and Raigad, while the Thane Municipal Corporation also operates one. In a related development, BMC’s education department has come under scrutiny after five employees hired under the disability quota were found ineligible in a recent re-evaluation. A state-wide audit led to the medical reassessment of 34 out of 135 such employees. The five individuals were found to have disability levels below the 40 per cent threshold required for quota eligibility.
The development raises fresh concerns over the misuse of reserved categories and highlights the importance of robust verification mechanisms in recruitment processes.
