The Centre of Excellence (CoE) tag for the country’s premier speech and hearing institute in Mysuru — All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH) — is expected to boost research in the areas of communication and its disorders, with five exclusive research centres coming up on the Mysuru campus.
The Centre is spending over ₹137 crore on making AIISH a world-class establishment. The projects taken up as part of the CoE status are expected to be done by this September.
Thanks to the expansion of the campus, new facilities are being added to the 52-year-old institute which offers clinical services for the treatment of communication disorders in all age groups for people from across the country.
About 2,71,250 sq. ft of built-up area in the new facility on the AIISH campus will be housing the proposed departments. The Central Public Works Department has executed the work.
AIISH director S.R. Savitri told The Hindu that the CoE projects were nearing completion, with about 94% of the works done as of now. “We hope to dedicate the new facilities in September,” she added.
She said infrastructure, staff strength, and equipment had been upgraded because of the CoE status.
Centre for Speech and Language Sciences; Centre for Hearing Sciences; Centre for Prevention of Communication Disorders and Epidemiological Research and Cognitive Behavioural Sciences in Communication Disorders; Centre for Informatics and Patents and Rehabilitation Engineering, Acoustics, and Biomedical Engineering; and Centre for Public Education in Communication Disorders are the new research facilities that are coming up. These facilities will get dedicated faculty members who will be engaged in research.
Dr. Savitri said 68 posts had been created by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the CoE who will be deputed to the newly established research centres. Centre for Hearing Impairment in Children, Adults, and Senior Citizens; Centre for Persons with Swallowing Disorders; Centre for Persons with Tinnitus and Vestibular Disorders; Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and Sign Language, and Centre for Surgical Rehabilitation of Communication Disorders are the five clinical centres being developed at the institute.
Mysuru facility to play the mentor role
Institutes on the lines of AIISH have been proposed in Uttar Pradesh and Tripura for expanding clinical services to the people in the north and the northeast.
This is on the lines of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences which has been established in seven States besides New Delhi.
AIISH director S.R. Savitri said one of the sites identified in Uttar Pradesh was in Kanpur. AIISH in Mysuru will be playing the role of a mentor for establishing the institutes.
Varanasi is also a keen contender. Other States were also willing to give land for establishing the AIISH-type institutes, she said.
