Chandy to lay stone for medical college

Complex to come up on 50 acres at Konni

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will lay the foundation stone for the proposed Government Medical College at Konni on January 26, Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash has said.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, the Minister said P.J. Kurien, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson and Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar would be the guests of honour at the function.

The proposed medical college and a modern hospital complex would come up on the 50 acres of land provided by the Soil Conservation Department at Vattamon in the Aruvappulam grama panchayat.

A sum of Rs.200 crore, including the State’s budgetary allocation and the loan from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), would be utilised for the construction work in the first phase. The technical committee had approved the plan and HLL Lifecare Ltd would undertake the work, he said.

The government intended to construct a 500-bed modern hospital complex. The General Hospital in Pathanamthitta would temporarily be attached to the proposed medical college till the construction was completed, Mr Prakash said. The government would also set up a drug testing laboratory at Konni and the project was given a special mention in the State budget too.

The government was planning to develop a township that housed the proposed medical college, College of Food Technology and Research Institute, a Central School, etc. at Konni.

The District Collector had already submitted a proposal to the Centre to sanction a Central School. The government had expressed its willingness to allot four acres of land attached to the Soil Conservation Department at Vattamon for the proposed school, he added.

Classes for the first batch of MBBS students at the proposed college was expected to start in 2014-15. The project was the government’s new year gift to the district, he said.