Six government medical colleges, nearly 1,700 MBBS seats, and a ₹225 crore supplementary budget — Uttarakhand's Chief Minister's Office has laid out, in striking numerical detail, how the state's healthcare and medical education landscape has been reshaped under Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami since 2021.

Three New Colleges, Three Districts That Didn't Have One Before

At the heart of the announcement is a straightforward but consequential fact: when Dhami took office, Uttarakhand had three government medical colleges. It now has six. The three additions — at Almora, Pithoragarh, and Haridwar — bring government-funded MBBS education into districts that previously had none, alongside the older colleges at Dehradun, Haldwani, and Srinagar. Combined, the six institutions offer 675 MBBS seats.

A seventh is effectively ready. Construction of the Rudrapur Medical College is complete. The moment formal approval arrives for its 100 MBBS seats, the government tally rises to 775. Add the 900 seats across four private colleges and 125 seats at AIIMS Rishikesh, and Uttarakhand's total MBBS capacity touches roughly 1,700 seats — a number that would have seemed ambitious a decade ago for a hill state of around 11 million people.

Nursing's Quiet Revolution: 321 New Seats and Jobs in Japan and Germany

The nursing expansion is less headline-grabbing but arguably as consequential for frontline care. Since July 2021, three new government nursing colleges have been established, adding 321 seats across BSc Nursing, MSc Nursing, and other programmes. Government nursing institutions now hold 879 seats; private institutions add 10,616, bringing the combined total to 11,495 nursing seats statewide.

What makes the nursing push distinctive is its explicit employment link. The state has embedded foreign-language training into the curriculum — and the results are concrete: 60 candidates from two batches found employment in Japan in 2023, and 13 candidates secured placements in Germany in 2025. For young people in the Himalayas, that is not a small thing.

₹225 Crore Supplementary Budget: Where the Money Goes

The government has routed ₹225 crore through a supplementary budget to anchor these expansions financially. The allocation breaks into three clear lines. The Atal Ayushman Yojana — which gives every Uttarakhand resident cashless treatment coverage of up to ₹5 lakh — receives ₹100 crore. The Golden Card Yojana, which extends cashless treatment to state government employees, gets ₹125 crore. A further ₹160 crore is earmarked for infrastructure — specifically for works at Pithoragarh and Rudrapur medical colleges and associated nursing colleges.

CM Dhami's stated commitment, as quoted by the office, is unambiguous: 'hamari sarkar ka sankalp hai ki Uttarakhand ke har kshetra tak behtar swasthya suvidhayen pahunchen' — 'our government's resolve is that better health facilities reach every corner of Uttarakhand, and that the state's youth get maximum opportunities in medical education.'

Rudrapur's 100 Seats: The Number to Watch

The formal regulatory approval for Rudrapur's 100 MBBS seats is now the single most watched administrative step in Uttarakhand's medical education calendar. It would push government-college capacity past 775 seats and signal that the construction investment has cleared every regulatory hurdle. How quickly the ₹160 crore infrastructure allocation translates into functional wards, labs, and faculty quarters at Pithoragarh and Rudrapur will determine whether the numbers on paper become care on the ground.