Decks cleared for Nagaland’s first medical college, says Health minister

First academic session will have an intake capacity of 100 students

Our Correspondent
Kohima, July 15 (EMN): Minister of Health and Family Welfare, S Pangnyu Phom, on Friday said that issues pertaining to manpower and other requirements for Nagaland’s first medical college in Kohima have been “resolved.”

The minister had said last month that the building construction work of the much-awaited medical hospital in Kohima (likely to be renamed Nagaland Institute of Medical Sciences and Research) was 60% complete and 60 posts for the faculty had been created, as the institute is scheduled to commence courses from the next academic session.

He took to social media to update about the college on Friday.

‘Had a review meeting of the ongoing Nagaland Medical College, Kohima, where issues on manpower, equipment and basic services requirements were deliberated and resolved for further perusal,’ he tweeted.

‘Also, matters pertaining to Medical College in Mon were discussed at length, and matters like preliminary works, mode of tender, manpower for technical will be undertaken in due of time,’ he added.

Meanwhile, Principal Director of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. K Vikato Kinimi told journalists that a “big progress” has been made on the college of late.

Infrastructure-wise, the department has given a deadline to the engineers, pressing them to complete the work by November 2022.

“We are pressuring the engineers to monitor daily activities at the site and they are also putting in their hard work,” said Kinimi.

16 applicants for director’s post

The principal director went on to say that they were trying their best to start the first session by June/July next year. 

The first academic session will have an intake capacity of 100 students, he said, adding the college session could have started earlier if not for the “waste of four years for land acquisition” and “two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic”.

He further informed that 16 candidates have applied for the post of director of the medical college and “scrutiny” was going on to select the best candidate for the post. Meanwhile, 60 categories of posts have been created, which is required for obtaining a Letter of Permission (LOP) from the National Medical Commission.

Recently, Governor of Nagaland Prof. Jagdish Mukhi had reviewed the status of the project.

The government of India had in 2014 approved a grant of INR 189 crore for the state’s first medical college based on the detailed project report (DPR) prepared and the funding pattern was 90:10 (Central and state government share).