Nod to Rs 750-cr budget for medical varsity

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, November 17

The state government has approved a budget of Rs 750 crore for the construction of the first phase of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical University, Karnal, at Kutail village.

Confirming this to The Tribune, Kanwar Ombir Singh, Controller of Finance of the Medical University, said that after the approval of the budget from the government, the assigned company has floated tenders for the various construction works. The tenders would be opened at the end of this month.

In the first phase, a 750-bedded super speciality hospital and administrative block will be constructed on the premises of the university. Apart from it, the university will have one medical college of 200 seats, a dental college and 50 bed trauma centre to tackle emergency and accident cases, he said.

The buildings of the nursing and physiotherapy colleges have already been constructed at the cost of Rs 26 crore. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had inaugurated those on September 12.

Classes for the 40 BSc Nursing and 30 BSc Physiotherapy students commenced from the building of the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC) in November 2018.

CM Khattar had announced the project of the university on December 13, 2014, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of this project on February 12, 2019 digitally from Kurukshetra.

Earlier, it was to be set up on 178 acres, but now, it is being constructed on 140 acres.

Sources said that the government has also approved Rs 36 crore for direct connectivity from National Highway-44 to this university. However, the land for the direct connectivity is yet to be acquired from farmers, sources said.

Harvinder Kalyan, Gharaunda MLA, said that it was a prestigious project of the Union and state governments and would boost the health services in the region.

“The CM is committed to the construction of the project because it will provide better health facilities to the people. After the starting of this university, the people of not only Haryana, but also of the neighbouring states will benefit,” Kalyan added.