Kerala's first self-financing medical college in the private sector, The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) College of Medicine, was inaugurated at nearby Edapally today by Chief Minister A K Antony.

The 11-storey building on the AIMS campus, which houses the medical college, is fully equipped with the departments of anatomy, biochemistry, community medicine and forensic sciences among others.

Addressing the gathering, the Chief Minister said that due to its financial position it was difficult for the government to contemplate starting a medical college. "Our aim is to provide better facilities at the existing medical colleges run by the government. The need of the hour in Kerala was setting up of world-class educational institutions," he added, according to a press communiqué from AIMS.

The government would give all encouragement for more such institutions to come up in the private sector in the state so that students do not have to go to neighbouring states for higher education, he said.

Union ministers Ananth Kumar and O Rajagopal, state ministers - Health Minister P Sankaran, Education Minister Nalakathu Soopy and Tourism Minister K V Thomas - and veteran Congress leader K Karunakaran were among those who spoke. The admission procedure for the first year is over and about 100 students would be admitted to the under-graduate class.