Dr Vikas Bhatia appointed VC of medical university

Dr Vikas Bhatia has been appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay University of Health Sciences, Karnal.

Dr Bhatia, who had earlier served as head of the Department of Community Medicine at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, was appointed by Haryana Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh, who is also the Chancellor of the university, for a period of three years. He assumed charge on Monday. Dr MK Garg, Director of Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC), and the controlling officer of the university, welcomed him on the occasion.

The appointment of the VC has given the hope that the university will begin operations soon. Sources said the recruitment process for faculty members was also underway. Although the university building is complete, the absence of a VC and teaching staff has delayed its functioning. The project is an ambitious initiative of former Chief Minister and current Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who had announced it on December 13, 2014, soon after assuming office as CM.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the medical university on February 12, 2019, from Kurukshetra. The construction has been completed at a cost of Rs 761.51 crore on approximately 140 acres.

Scheduled for completion by January 2022, the project faced several delays due to the Covid pandemic and administrative hurdles as deadline was extended six times. The university campus includes facilities for postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research departments in Biotechnology, Experimental Medicine, Genetics, Immunology and Virology. It also includes a Dental College, Pharmacy College, Mental Health Institute and a Sports Medicine unit. A 750-bed super-specialty hospital, administrative block, library, hostels, residential quarters, Nursing College and Physiotherapy College are also part of the campus.