A state-run medical college will come up in New Town, Rajarhat.

A 25-acre plot has been identified between action areas III and IV to set up the college, housing minister Goutam Deb said on Thursday. “The proposal was mooted by the health department four months ago.”

Deb, also chairman of Hidco, the implementing agency of the township, was speaking at the programme to lay the foundation stone of Global Hospitals in Rajarhat.

“Corporate hospitals with state-of-the-art facilities are required, but there is also a need for state-run hospitals for treating common people,” he pointed out.

Health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra said: “We are keen on setting up a medical college in Rajarhat.”

Bengal has nine state-run medical colleges, with 1,105 seats. Five of them are in Calcutta. The health department is working on a proposal to convert Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital, in Kalyani, into a medical college.

Addressing the programme, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said: “We provide healthcare to 72 per cent of the population.”

Global Hospitals, Calcutta, will be operational in 18-20 months, said managing director K. Ravindranath.