NEW DELHI, Nov 25 ? Super speciality North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIMS) is likely to be commissioned by May, Meghalaya State Health and Family Welfare Minister, Sayeedullah Nongram said here.
A second cancer hospital in the North-east, meanwhile, is coming up in Shillong, with the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry endorsing a proposal for a super speciality cancer hospital. The 100-beded proposed hospital would be Government of India funded project.
The proposal for the hospital was claimed to have been cleared by the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dr Ambumani Ramadoss, at a meeting with Meghalaya Health and Family Welfare Minister.
Briefing newsmen, Nongram after his meeting with Union Health and Family Welfare officials, said that the Meghalaya Government has requested for extension of services of the director NEIGRIMS, Dr FU Ahmed, till commissioning of the project. Dr Ahmed?s term is due for expiry on December 31.
An autonomous institute, NEIGRIHMS is a Government of India funded project and the region?s lone postgraduate medical institute and the third in the country to be set up by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee declared NEIGRIHMS as a national institute on January 22, 2000, when he had visited Shillong. Part of the Prime Minister?s special package, the project is estimated to cost Rs.422.60 crore. The progress and the development of the Institute have been keenly monitored by the Prime Minister?s Office.
Meanwhile, Nongram said that apart from the super speciality cancer hospital, Dr Ramadoss has also cleared up the grade of the mental hospital. Proposal for a malaria institute in Garo Hills in the State has also been cleared. The land for the proposed malaria institute would be provided by the Meghalaya Government, he disclosed.
Nongram said that the Health and Family Welfare Minister had conveyed each of the north-eastern States that the centre would to sanction Rs 88 crore to develop health care facilities in the region. The funds would be under the direct disposal of the respective Chief Ministers, he added.