Civil works for the new medical college at Orathur in the district is progressing at a brisk pace as classes for the first batch of students have been planned from June.
The Public Works Department has prioritised construction of residential blocks for students, administrative block and laboratories for anatomy, physiology and biochemistry departments for smooth start of classes for the first-year students.
The rest of the building infrastructure, including a 700-bedded hospital, will be readied by the end of this calendar year, said V. Visvanathan, Dean of Government Medical Hospital , Nagapattinam.
A year ag0k, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami laid the foundation for the ₹366-crore project. Earlier this year, Joint Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Ajay Yadav reviewed the progress of civil works for the college, which is among the 11 new medical colleges sanctioned for the State by Medical Council of India.
Counselling for transfer of faculty from other government medical colleges has been completed and they will be posted well in time to set up laboratories for start of classes for the first batch of students, Dr. Visvanathan said.
A total of 150 students are to be admitted into the first batch. The facilities at Nagapattinam Government Hospital will also be utilised for academic purposes, the Dean said.
As per the blueprint, the plan is to construct a total of 20 buildings for hospital, college and administrative blocks, hostels, staff quarters and other special units at the site, which is accessible from both Nagapattinam-Sikkal and Nagapattinam-Velankanni roads.
The new medical college will obviate the need for patients in Nagapattinam district to travel to neighbouring Tiruvarur to avail the facilities at Government Medical College Hospital for specialised treatments.
