Three years after prescribing a 150 MBBS seat cap for colleges offering undergraduate medical education, the National Medical Commission (NMC) today removed the ceiling, reverting to the old system.In a notification issued here, the apex medical education regulator introduced several key changes to the Undergraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (UG-MSR 2023).The most important amendment relates to the deletion of the earlier restriction that capped the number of MBBS seats at 150 per college from the academic year 2024-25.Until 2023, a new UG medical college could induct 100 to 150 MBBS students and increase these to up to 250. But in 2023, the NMC notified new rules that said, “Applications for establishing new undergraduate medical education colleges shall be allowed only for 50/100/150 seats from 2024. Colleges seeking an increased number of seats cannot exceed a total of 150 MBBS students from 2024-25.”Today the NMC has removed this 150-seat cap and the upper limit has not been specified in the notification order with sources saying the previous 250-seat cap has likely been restored.With the 150 MBBS seat cap gone, medical colleges will have greater flexibility to increase their intake capacity, subject to other regulatory requirements.The revised norms are expected to facilitate the establishment of new medical institutions and expand seat strength in existing colleges. The commission has further withdrawn the clause that mandated a ratio of 100 MBBS seats per 10 lakh population in a state or union territory.The removal of this condition will simplify the process of seat expansion and reduce regulatory constraints on states seeking to increase medical education infrastructure, top officials told The Tribune.In another important amendment, the earlier requirement that the distance between a medical college and its attached hospital should be within a travel time of 30 minutes has been replaced. The new norm specifies a maximum distance of 10 kilometres between the two facilities.For institutions located in North Eastern and Himalayan states, this limit has been relaxed to 15 kilometres, considering geographical challenges.Government sources said the changes to UG medical education norms issued under The National Medical Commission Act, 2019, sought to make medical education more accessible and responsive to growing healthcare demands.The notification has been issued by the Undergraduate Medical Education Board of the NMC and forms part of ongoing reforms to modernise medical education standards in India. These changes come into effect immediately.