Ludhiana is set to get its first government medical college as the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) will open the institution in the city. ESIC has decided to open ten new medical colleges across the country, including one in Ludhiana, Punjab.

This will be the first government tertiary care health facility in the district, which has around 17 lakh ESIC beneficiaries. The college will be built on 25 acres of land, and ESIC is working with the district administration to acquire the land parcel.

The college is planned to start by the next academic year from ESIC’s 300-bed hospital near Bharat Nagar Chowk. As the new building comes up, the college will also have a separate 500-bed hospital.

The ESIC already runs seven hospitals in the state - Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara, Mandi Gobindgarh and Mohali, and will build new hospitals in Dera Bassi, Rajpura, Malerkotla, Bathinda and Moga.