Firms to get impetus to set up hospitals in northeast
By IANSThursday, March 4, 2010
SHILLONG - In order to encourage private investors to set up medical institutes in the northeastern region, the central government Friday announced special concessions for them.
“We have reduced the minimum area requirement for setting up a medical college from 25 to 20 acres,” union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said at the inauguration of the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), the first super specialty hospital in Meghalaya and the region.
Conceived by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi 23 years ago, the medical institute was formally inaugurated by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had declared NEIGRIMS a national institute Jan 22, 2000, when he visited Shillong.
NEIGRIHMS has been designed in line with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.
“We have also reduced the requisite bed capacity from 300 to 200 while the bed occupancy from 80 percent to 60 percent and number of required laboratories from 14 to 6,” the minister said.
These special concessions, he said, were aimed to encourage private parties to set up more medical colleges in the region.
Azad also announced that a few dozen nursing schools will be established in the next two years and Meghalaya has been identified as one of the states where such nursing schools will be set up.
An amount of Rs.67.5 crore has also been earmarked for the establishment of a herbal institute under the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) within the premises of NEIGHRIMS, Azad announced.
