IIT Kharagpur is set to take its first formal step into medical education by introducing a postgraduate MD (Doctor of Medicine) programme, shelving for now its earlier plan to launch an MBBS course due to inadequate infrastructure.

The institute will apply for approval to the National Medical Council (NMC) — formerly the Medical Council of India — once the application portal opens.

“We have already appointed many highly skilled doctors. They will be teaching students who will enrol in the MD programme,” IIT Kharagpur director Suman Chakraborty told Metro. The plan was placed before the institute’s board of governors during a meeting on September 23, he added.

An institute official said the MD programme is likely to have 20 seats, and students will be taught at a medical college named after Dr B.C. Roy, the first chief minister of Bengal, who had donated the land for setting up the country’s first IIT.

The Dr B.C. Roy medical college is housed within the IIT Kharagpur campus. However, practical training for MD students will be conducted at a new superspecialty hospital named after Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Jan Sangh, the fountainhead of the BJP.

The Syama Prasad Mookerjee Institute of Medical Sciences & Research has been developed on an 18-acre plot in Balarampur, just outside the campus. It has been positioned as a healthcare hub to serve students, faculty, and the broader community.

In December 2021, the IIT authorities split the earlier Dr B.C. Roy Multi Speciality Medical Research Centre into two entities: the Syama Prasad Mookerjee superspecialty hospital (SPMSH) and the Dr B.C. Roy medical college, in preparation for its future in medical education.

The original plan had aimed higher. On May 17, 2007, then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam laid the foundation stone of the Dr B.C. Roy Multi Speciality Medical Research Centre, with the vision of launching both an MBBS college and a superspecialty hospital.

That vision appeared closer to reality in late 2021, when then IIT Kharagpur director V.K. Tewari said during the institute’s convocation: “We are likely to start the MBBS college in the name of Dr B.C. Roy… Hopefully, we will be able to start with 100 students this year. The superspecialty hospital in the name of Syama Prasad Mookerjee has also started.”

However, the MBBS plan has since been paused. A senior IIT official explained: “We are primarily an institute dedicated to engineering programmes. We already handle 16,000 BTech, MTech, and PhD students. It will take us time to take up the MBBS programme.”

The institute recently achieved a milestone in its medical journey. In late September, the IIT announced that the first surgery had been successfully performed at the SPMSH. The procedure was conducted by senior surgeon R.K. Behera.

“With the operation theatre now functional, the Syama Prasad hospital is set to expand towards a 220-bed Mission Mode IPD hospital, providing world-class healthcare to students, faculty, staff, and the wider community,” the institute said in a statement.