RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Asia's first private medical college, will turn 100 next year.

Former students, among them a minister and a senior health official, were overwhelmed with nostalgia while recalling their days at the college at a programme on Sunday that marked the start of the centenary celebrations.

The history of the hospital goes back to 1886 when the Calcutta School of Medicine was set up by physician Radha Gobinda Kar, along with other doctors, after he returned from England with degrees in medicine.

The institute was initially established at 161 Baithakkhana Bazaar Road, near Sealdah. The students on its rolls had to visit Mayo Hospital in Howrah for training.

The medical college got a hospital of its own much later in 1898 - when a 12-bigha plot in Belgachhia was bought for Rs 12,000 and a one-storey building with 30 beds constructed.

"The name of the hospital underwent many changes. In 1916, Belgachhia Medical College was inaugurated by Lord Carmichael, then governor of Bengal," said an RG Kar official who is also member of the centenary celebration committee.

In 1948, the name of the institute was changed to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Ten years later, the Bengal government took over the medical college.

Over the years, the area of the hospital complex has increased manifold. Now there are 10 hospital buildings and seven hostel buildings, spread across 15 acres.

The number of beds has gone up to 1,210.

"The building (Platinum Jubilee building) housing this sprawling new auditorium was not there when we were students," Sashi Panja, the state minister for women and child development and social welfare, said at the programme to inaugurate the centenary celebrations.

"There was a three-storey yellow building. We used to have classes on its terrace. The ground floor of the building had collapsed when we were present on the campus."

Panja said that when she was a student, students and teachers of other medical colleges would look down upon RG Karians because the institution was not in the city proper.

"Khaler college (College by the canal) would be the stock response when we said where we were studying. I hope that has changed now," she said.

Sushanta Banerjee, another former student and the present director of medical education, pointed out that RG Kar was an important part of the freedom struggle.

"All its professors and principals were Indians. The medium of instruction was Bengali. The college can be likened to the 1911 IFA shield victory of Mohun Bagan," Banerjee said.

Prabir Mukherjee, the medical superintendent and vice-principal of RG Kar medical college, said Calcutta Medical College and Hospital was the only other medical college in the city when the Calcutta School of Medicine was set up.