Chennai: The Tamilnadu Directorate of Medical Education (DME) is expected to issue application forms for MBBS and BDS courses from 5 or 6 June.
According to sources, the date to submit the forms will be announced in a few days.
In addition to the existing medical colleges, the State recently got order to set up a government institution in Karur district with 150 seats, beginning this academic year.
Hundred additional seats for the medical institution in Tirunelveli was granted last year and 95 more seats in Madurai Medical College is waiting to be given the go-ahead.
The Medical Council of India (MCI) has done two rounds of inspection at the Karur campus. The officials have requested an undertaking to rectify the minor problems within a few months.
For the students of first two years, the 340-bedded district headquarters hospital will be used for teaching and the institution is constructing a 1,000-bed unitary campus, it is learnt.
With every academic year, the State government has a policy decision to increase the number of institutions or procure additional seats.
Sources in the government state that proposals for colleges in Ooty, Ramanathapuram and Perambalur are awaiting approval by the Centre.
In 2018, Tamilnadu had 22 government medical institutions with 2,900 MBBS seats. With the addition of another college, the State now has 23 colleges.
The DME is also planning to increase the number of seats in each medical college to 250 from the existing 150.
Admission is provided based on the performance of the candidates in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), this year, 5 May, 1,34,711 students appeared for the test held in 188 centres in the State.
In addition to students from private schools, statistics show that more than 19,000 candidates from government and aided institutions had registered for the competitive exam.
In Tamilnadu, the test was held without any protest although a few students were not able to make it to the exams. This is the first time that it was held in the afternoon to facilitate students from other districts or State to commute to write the test.
Students are waiting for the answer keys to be uploaded by National Testing Agency (NTA) and NEET results are expected to be declared in the first week of June.