Ramadoss to inspect progress of NEIGRIMS ahead of inauguration

Shillong, Jun 11 (UNI) The much-awaited "super-specialty" hospital North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute for Medical Sciences (NEIGRIMS) is likely to be inaugurated this November, NEIGRIMS officials said.

The foundation stone of the Rs 422.60 crore-project stretching over 306 acres at Mawdiangdiang area, about 15 kms from here was laid by former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi in 1986.

Union Minister-in-charge of Health and Family Welfare Dr Ambumani Ramadoss would be leading a 20-member team of parliamentarian to inspect the ''super-specialty'' hospital.

Dr Ramadoss will be arriving here on June 26 to inspect the hospital and hold meeting with NEIGRIMS officails, an official said here today.

The visit is going to be the virtual ground preparation for the Institute's formal inauguration sometime in November next.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry is likely to rope in the chairperson of the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance(UPA) Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to inaugurate the long overdue formal inauguration of the hospital.

However, the interim facilities have functional with some 500 persons being attended to in a few disciplines like cardiology, oncology, medicine, etc.

Much of the delay pertaining to the inauguration was related to purchase of equipments for the 500-bedded super-specialty hospital.

However, NEIGRIMS officials said the Institute is already functional with its process of inducting specialists and other medical experts to serve in this prestigious medical institute of the region.

An autonomous institute, NEIGRIHMS is a Central Government-funded and the region's lone postgraduate medical institute and the third in the country to be set up by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The cost of the project is estimated to cost Rs 422.60 crore.

Former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee declared NEIGRIHMS as a national institute on January 22, 2000, when he had visited Shillong. The progress and the development of the Institute have been keenly monitored by the Prime Minister's Office.

UNI