Kolkata: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur is going to start medical course. As per sources, the Central Government has approved a 400-bed super-specialty hospital on the IIT-Kharagpur campus along with a medical college so that the institute can start a medical course. With this, IIT Kharagpur will be the only one in the chain to offer medical education alongside technology.
As per information, a 45-acre plot has been allocated at the south-east-end of the IIT premises, where a modern green building with minimal energy consumption will be developed. The construction is expected to start before Durga Puja.
As per sources, the Centre and IIT Kharagpur have selected public sector enterprise HSCC for the project. HSCC offers professional consultancy services in the health care sector to both state-run and private hospitals. S K Som, Director of the Institute stated that it is in the process of finalising the architect who will prepare the building plan, according to specifications of our own civil constructions cell.
As per information, the institute offers a master's degree course in medical technology, which has already appreciated all over the country. This encouraged the institute to begin a proper undergraduate medical course recognised by the MCI, five years ago. But being a technical institute, IIT’s plan to start medical education faced both technical and legal hurdles. In addition, while the IITs are run by the ministry of human resources development, medical education is supervised by the Medical Council of India, which is under the health ministry.
Nevertheless, after much persuasion and consideration, both ministries have now agreed on the project. In this view, Som said we will have both medical and educational tie-ups with AIIMS. As the sources informed, the institute will have many international collaborations, too, and it has already held talks for possible tie-ups with the John Hopkins University - the premier university in the US for bio-medical research, medicine and genetics.
According the information, the project will require Rs 230 crore, of which Rs 150 crore will be given by the Centre, while the rest of the amount will be arranged by the institute. The Centre has already given an initial amount of Rs 75 crore.
