Med college project needs more land

SHILLONG: The Shillong Medical College and Hospital project, which has been shifted to Umsawli from Jhalupara, requires 5-7 acres of additional land.
The Health and Family Welfare Department has asked the Urban Affairs Department to provide the additional land for the much-delayed project.
“The requisite infrastructure is already there in Umsawli since the TB hospital was supposed to start there and it is also acceptable to KPC Medical College, Kolkata,” Health Secretary Pravin Bakshi told reporters on Saturday.
A concessionaire agreement for the Shillong Medical College was signed between KPC and the state government in 2011-12 when Jhalupara was the designated site.
The agreement had also covered fees and state sponsorship for students.
However, the draft of a new agreement — necessitated by the change of location and additional financial burden for the state government due to the delay — has been drawn up and is being vetted by the Law Department.
Bakshi said more land would be required because Medical Council of India guidelines stipulate a minimum of 23 acres for a medical college whereas the present plot of land measures 17 acres.
Former chief minister Mukul Sangma had laid the foundation stone for the state’s first medical college at the existing Reid Provincial Chest Hospital in Jhalupara in 2017, five years after the MoU was signed.
The initial project cost was Rs 250 crore that has now escalated to around Rs 350-400 crore since it has been delayed by over six years.
On the other hand, construction of the Tura Medical College has finally started.