By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The fate of the patients at the Reid Chest (TB) Hospital at Jhalupara is still unclear even as the State Government is planning to start construction of the proposed Shillong Medical College next year.
The Health and Family Welfare department has so far not been able to relocate the TB Hospital from its present location at Jhalupara to pave way for the medical college.
The State Urban Affairs department has already handed over a plot of land at Mawdiangdiang to the Health and Family Welfare department to relocate the TB Hospital, but construction of the hospital is still a far cry.
Earlier, the Health department had identified a plot of land near the Pasteur Institute for relocating the TB Hospital, but the land was later found to be too small for the purpose, prompting the department to approach the Urban Affairs department for allocation of land in the Greater Shillong Township area for relocation of the Reid Chest Hospital.
“We are still at the planning stage, so question of shifting the patients from TB Hospital at this stage does not arise,” Deputy Chief Minister and incharge Health and Family Welfare, Rowell Lyngdoh, said on Tuesday.
To a query on the present status of the proposed medical college, Lyngdoh informed that a lot of bidders have applied for the project and the Department is presently short-listing the bidders.
Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma had, earlier, announced that construction of the proposed Shillong Medical College would begin from 2013 and the first batch of MBBS students would be enrolled in 2017.
However, with uncertainty dogging the relocation of the Reid Chest Hospital, it remains to be seen whether the State Government would be able to actually start construction of the proposed medical college in 2013.