Centre's Rs 300 cr grant to upgrade medical colleges in Assam

Assam government said it has received Rs 300 crore grants from the Centre to upgrade the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital and Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh into super speciality hospitals.

"We received the letter of approval in 10th Jan 2014. The Cabinet has sanctioned Rs 150 crore each to the two medical institutes to upgrade them into super speciality hospitals," Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told.

The government would now prepare a project report and send it to the Central Health Ministry, Sarma added. "We will do the necessary work to upgrade it," he said.

On controlling Japanese encephalitis disease in the state, the minister said the state health department would start a mass adult vaccination drive from February 10 to 19 to cover 60 lakh people.

The drive will be carried out in Dibrugarh, Tisukia, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Jorhat, Kamrup (Rural), Kamrup (Metro) and Sivasagar districts.

"We carried out a pilot project in Sivasagar district around two years ago. The success rate of that vaccine is 85 per cent. So we have decided to go ahead with it," Sarma said, adding the vaccine would be sourced from the public sector undertaking Hindustan Latex.

On expenditure, the state government will spend around Rs 30 crore in the entire exercise, he said.

PTI