The state government plans to establish seven new medical colleges in the state, including two government institutions, two under the public-private partnership (PPP) model and three through private and minority organisations.Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh said the expansion would significantly increase the state’s medical education capacity and reduce the need for students to travel abroad for medical studies.Punjab currently has 13 medical colleges offering about 1,900 MBBS seats. The new institutions are expected to add around 600 seats.Addressing a press conference, the minister said existing government medical colleges in Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot were also being upgraded as postgraduate institutes to provide super-specialty services.He said construction of the Shaheed Udham Singh State Institute of Medical Sciences in Hoshiarpur would begin on March 20. The project, approved at a cost of Rs 274.75 crore, would include a 300-bed hospital and a medical college with 100 MBBS seats.The facility would include a five-storey hospital building and a three-storey academic block equipped with laboratories, a library and a 500-seat auditorium. Clinical departments would cover specialties such as general surgery, orthopaedics and psychiatry, supported by advanced diagnostic facilities, including MRI and CT scans.The minister said the project cost was reduced from an earlier estimate of Rs 550 crore to about Rs 274 crore after a detailed review.Another government medical college was being established in Kapurthala, where the tender process had been completed and construction would begin soon.The colleges under the PPP model were planned in Sangrur and SBS Nagar. A Jain minority medical college was proposed at Lehragaga after the government leased land and signed an MoU, while a Muslim minority medical college proposed in Malerkotla had submitted its DPR to the Centre. A private medical college was also planned near Ludhiana.