MUMBAI, Sept. 16 -- The state medical education department has permitted the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to set up a 50-seat graduate medical college on its premises at the ESIC Hospital in Andheri East. ESIC regional director Abhilasha Jha said that the first batch would be admitted in the academic year 2025-26 and the fees would be Rs.24,000 per year, one of the lowest anywhere. This will be the first Central organisation to start a medical college in Mumbai. The Centre has also sanctioned a 50-seat graduate medical college in GT Hospital. Mumbai currently has government and civic medical colleges in Nair, KEM, Sion, Cooper, and J J hospitals. The ESIC hospital in Andheri was charred in a major fire in December 2018, in which 11 died and 146 were injured, including five infants. The majority of its services were then shifted to the ESIC hospital in Kandivali. After the fire, it was found that the hospital did not have a fire NOC, and 20 unauthorised LPG cylinders had been stored inside the building. The initiative to transfer the ESIC hospital to the central government was taken back in 2008 by the then chief minister Vilsarao Deshmukh and health minister Suresh Shetty. "The medical college was sanctioned when Oscar Fernandes was labour minister-he granted Rs.500 crore to build it into a model superspeciality hospital," said Shetty, who was also the Andheri East MLA. "The fire in 2018 delayed things. I am glad it is finally starting now." In a PIL filed by Congress leader Rajesh Sharma, the Bombay High Court ordered the National Building Construction Company to complete the construction by August 2025, and instructed ESIC to make the hospital fully operational by January 31, 2026. The final fire NOC is still pending. The ESIC complex in Andheri has a 300-bed hospital, of which 100 beds are now functional. The rest will start soon, and the construction and interiors of the complex will be completed by December....