A team of higher Indian Railways officials was in Nagpur on Monday to finalise the land and complete formalities for setting up a railway medical college.

In her annual railway budget, Union Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee had proposed to set up railway medical colleges through public-private partnerships in Nagpur, Chennai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Mysore, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram.

The colleges will be set up to provide higher education to the children of railway employees.

The director general (Health and Hospital), Railway Board, Dr VK Ramteke and chief of railway hospital (Central Railway), Dr Madhu Malhotra were in Nagpur to discuss the issue with senior railway officials.

Both the officers also visited Godhni, on outskirts of the city, to inspect a potential site for the proposed medical college and hospital.

The team also met the divisional railway manager (DRM), Central Railway, Devendra Kumar Sharma, and discussed the requirements to set up a medical college meeting the rules laid down by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

The railways plan to start the college with private participation by making use of the existing medical facilities available at its hospital in the city.

According to sources, a private party interested in collaborating with the railways for the proposed railway medical college should have at least 10 years’ experience in running a medical college and should have an attached hospital as per MCI norms.

Foreign institutions can also participate in the bid, provided they comply with respective foreign medical regulatory authority norms.

Currently, the Central Railway runs a 200-bed hospital adjacent to DRM office in Nagpur.

“We are looking for couple of sites for the proposed medical college and hospital and the officers were here to finalise one of them,” said Suhas Lohkare, spokesman of the Central Railway, Nagpur division.