Faced with dwindling admissions for B.Tech courses, several big engineering college groups are eyeing the lucrative medical education business. According to sources, many of them have submitted applications to set up medical colleges. Owners of several such technical institutions, it is learnt, are bringing “political pressure” on the state government to immediately issue the mandatory ‘essentiality certificates’ (ECs) in an effort to tap into the huge demand for MBBS seats in the state.

The Maheshwara Group of Institutions, which runs a chain of engineering, pharmacy, MBA and MCA colleges in the city, is learnt to be lobbying hard to set up a new medical college.The group is owned by A.Maheshwar Reddy, former PRP MLA who is now in the Congress after the party's merger.The TRR Group, which runs several technical colleges and is owned by T.Rammohan Reddy, a Congress leader from Parigi, is also in the fray to set up a medical college in the state capital, sources said. Similarly, Gitam University, a deemed-university, has submitted application for setting up a medical college in Visakhapatnam.

The other prominent groups that have evinced interest in opening medical colleges are Aurora, Bharat, Nimra, Gayatri, Prakasam, and Bapatla Engineering Colleges, among others.Medical education department officials are under pressure from these groups, as they are directly approaching the CMO to get the much-needed ECs.The government has been refusing to issue ECs to set up new private medical colleges in the state since 2004, citing lack of faculty and staff to work in medical colleges and hospitals.However, ECs were issued to three private medical colleges last year, including the Apollo Group and the Malla Reddy Group.