The foundation stone laying ceremony was performed by the former Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Chandra Shekhar on 20 January 1991 in Sector 32 on the quilt of 36.09 acres of land allotted by the Chandigarh Administration. Construction for this College and Hospital started in 1991 itself. In the meantime, Government Medical College started functioning from Prayaas building, Sector 38, Chandigarh with General Hospital, Sector 16 as an attached teaching hospital.

The College was granted provisional affiliation for the MBBS course by the Panjab University, Vide letter No. 8334/Misc. dated 12.9.91, and permanent affiliation Vide letter No.2730/A-4/Misc. dated 3.4.99 for 50 admissions annually. Admissions to this Medical College have strictly been on merit on the basis of competitive examinations conducted by CBSE and the Combined Entrance Test conducted by the Panjab University/NEET. The first batch of 50 students was admitted in August 1991 and each subsequent year similar batches have been admitted. The first academic session was inaugurated in September 1991 by Sh. Baleshwar Rai, the then Adviser to the Administrator of Chandigarh. The first batch of students passed their final MBBS examinations conducted by the Panjab University in January, 1996 and completed their 12 months of compulsory rotating internship in January 1997