Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik accorded in-principle approval Thursday to Mahanadi Coalfields Limited’s (MCL) proposal to take over the operations of the medical college in Angul district. The state government will run the medical college and hospital, while MCL will provide the necessary funds for it, officials said. “The medical college will further strengthen the efforts of the state government to improve the capacity of the medical education institutions in Odisha,” the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said in a statement.
MCL has constructed the infrastructure in Talcher on 20 acres of land provided by the Odisha government at a cost of Rs 500 crore, officials said. The medical college will have 100 seats for MBBS students while the hospital will have 500 beds. The MCL tried to operate the Mahanadi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (MIMSR) through public-private partnership (PPP) mode initially. However, after communication between the Coal Ministry and the chief minister, a proposal was sent to the state government for taking over the responsibility of operating it.
The construction was completed in 2018 and the facility was inaugurated by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in 2019. If everything goes according to plan the medical college will be operational in the next couple of years, sources said. This facility will be a major step towards providing quality healthcare to the people of Angul and adjacent districts. The medical college will further strengthen the efforts of the government to improve the capacity of the medical education institutions in the state, said officials.
Meanwhile, Health department special secretary Dinabandhu Panda in a letter to MCL has asked the PSU to meet the additional capital expenditure required for the college in the next few years and also to bear the entire operational cost of the medical college.
The Director, Medical Education & Training has prepared a tentative estimate to run the institute. As per the estimation, Rs 627.93 crore will be required to meet the expenditure towards salary, maintenance and other services during a period of next five years. An amount of Rs 85.74 crore will be needed for the first year, Rs 110.59 crore for the second year and Rs 127.22 crore, Rs 147.83 crore and Rs 156.55 crore for the next three years. “You are requested to convey your acceptance of the above proposal for taking further necessary action at this end,” Panda told MCL CMD