Kalpetta: Health Minister K Muraleedharan on Friday said the Health Department is ready to provide the infrastructure and manpower required for the Government Medical College Hospital in Wayanad once sufficient land is made available for its permanent campus.
Speaking to reporters in Mananthavady after attending a function, the minister said the biggest obstacle to the institution’s expansion has been the lack of adequate land.
The Wayanad Medical College project has faced repeated setbacks since it was first proposed by the UDF government in 2012, largely due to difficulties in identifying a suitable site.
In 2012, the Chandraprabha Charitable Trust handed over 54 acres at Madakkimala near Kalpetta for the proposed medical college during the tenure of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Preliminary work began at the site, and the subsequent LDF government sanctioned ₹3.2 crore for infrastructure development. However, the project was later abandoned after the government declared the land unsuitable because it fell within an ecologically fragile area.
In 2021, the government upgraded the District Hospital at Mananthavady into a Government Medical College, with plans to shift it to a permanent campus at Boys Town after the required facilities were developed. That proposal, however, became entangled in prolonged legal disputes and was eventually shelved.
Ahead of the Assembly elections, then minister O R Kelu announced that 28 acres of Forest Department land at Ambukuthi, near Mananthavady, had been identified for the permanent campus. The proposal involved compensating the Forest Department with alternative land from the Revenue Department, but it failed after the Forest Department opposed the transfer.
More recently, the Mananthavady Municipality announced that it would identify and make available sufficient land for the medical college. Muraleedharan said he was hopeful that the municipality would fulfil its commitment and expedite the process.
“The government is ready to provide all the infrastructure and manpower required for the Medical College Hospital. It is now up to the people’s representatives and local bodies to ensure that adequate land is made available,” the minister said.
He added that if suitable land is secured, the medical college will continue to function in Mananthavady. The Health Department is also planning to establish a super-specialty hospital in Kalpetta, he said.
Muraleedharan also announced that the Taluk Hospital at Sulthan Bathery, which already has substantial infrastructure, would be upgraded into a district hospital. MRI scanning facilities will also be introduced soon at the Government Medical College Hospital, he said.
Although the Government Medical College at Mananthavady was established in 2021 by upgrading the district hospital, the arrangement was always intended to be temporary until a permanent campus could be developed. The first MBBS batch was inaugurated on October 18, 2025, by then Health Minister Veena George.
