India’s 1st healthcare engineering institute yet to see the light of day

CHANDIGARH: It has been more than a decade that the country’s first National Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Architecture (NIHEA) was proposed to be built in Chandigarh, but the files concerned continue to shuttle between the Centre and the UT Administration.

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 25

It has been more than a decade that the country’s first National Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Architecture (NIHEA) was proposed to be built in Chandigarh, but the files concerned continue to shuttle between the Centre and the UT Administration.

After plans of it being established at the PGIMER, Chandigarh, did not materialise, the Punjab Engineering College (PEC) approved the hospital engineering course last year. It will be a masters’ programme with academic support from the Chandigarh College of Architecture and the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32.

It was proposed that there was a need for a recurring grant of Rs 3 crore per year for salaries to faculty and administrative staff as per norms of the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and a non-recurring grant of Rs 1 crore for the one-of-its-kind course in the country. The course is offered in a number of institutions abroad and is said to be the first in South-East Asia.

The UT Administration had sent the proposal regarding the same to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in October this year. However, they have not yet received any go-ahead from the Centre.

“As per official records, the Department of Health and Family Welfare sent the communication to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in November. I think the authorities are only diverting the issue as the matter relates to the AICTE, which has already approved the proposal, not the MHRD,” said Dr JC Mehta, who has been pursuing the case.

“It has got delayed and took four months only for preparing DPR in Chandigarh. We have everything: space, labs and experts. The institute can start overnight. When new AIIMS and medical colleges are being opened why not this one,” he added.

The proposal was sent to the Health Ministry in 2007 and a high-power committee was formed to explore things to set it up in the PGI. Later it was shifted to the PEC.

Nominated councillor Maj Gen MS Kandal (retd), who has also been taking up the issue, along with Dr Mehta, said, “I had felt the need of this multi-disciplinary course in 1987 and had requested the Institute Of Engineering to take it up. However, after that due to my assignments abroad and now my deteriorating health, things have been lingering on.” He said, “I and Dr Mehta met the Secretary, Ministry of Health, in May and requested him to give it a go-ahead. Officials are working on it and I hope it is expedited further.”

Meanwhile, UT’s Special Secretary of Technical Education, Sachin Rana, said, “After I took the charge of the department, I sent the case to the authorities concerned in the Centre. At present, it is with the UGC for further approval.”