Ranchi: The Jharkhand govt has begun groundwork to upgrade four sadar hospitals in the state into medical colleges under the public-private-partnership (PPP) model in an effort to strengthen healthcare infrastructure across the state.The proposed upgradation will cover sadar hospitals in Khunti, Jamtara, Giridih and Dhanbad districts, with the aim of expanding access to quality medical education and advanced treatment facilities in underserved regions. With the upgradation, the number of medical colleges in the state will increase to nine from five.The Jharkhand Medical and Health Infrastructure Development and Procurement Corporation Ltd (JMHIDPCL) on Monday issued tender notices inviting private players to partner in the project, as part of the upgradation process.The move follows the state cabinet’s approval granted in April this year for converting these district-level hospitals into full-fledged medical colleges under PPP mode in a bid to boost health services in Jharkhand.“As part of the initiative, the existing 100-bed district hospitals in Giridih, Dhanbad and Jamtara will be upgraded to medical colleges. The 130-bed Khunti Sadar hospital will be upgraded to a 220-bed hospital,. After upgrading into medical colleges, a total of 350 new seats for medical education will be created in the state, 100 each in Giridih, Dhanbad and Jamtara and 50 seats in Khunti,” managing director of JMHIDPCL Shashi Prakash Jha told TOI.The selected private players after completion of the bidding process will be handed over the four medical colleges for a period of 60 years to operate the hospitals and colleges. “They have to run the hospitals and medical colleges as per the govt rate and won’t be able to take exorbitant course fees from students and treatment cost from patients. They will also be bound to run govt-run schemes at the hospitals. On an average, Rs 400 crore will be required to upgrade each of the sadar hospitals,” Jha said.Jha added that the move has been taken to increase the number of medical seats, to address the shortage of doctors and enable the people of Jharkhand to access better healthcare.The state has a total of 730 undergraduate seats for medical education in its five existing medical colleges in Dumka, Palamu, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur and at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences.Notably, the Centre approved an increase of 250 MBBS seats — 100 in MGM Medical College and 150 in Shaheed Nirmal Mahto Medical College and Hospital — earlier this month.