CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday laid foundation for a new government medical college in Ariyalur, which is being established at a cost of Rs 347 crore. The college will be built on 27 acres in Ariyalur South village. According to a press statement, the Centre will provide Rs 195 crore while the State will share Rs 130 crore to set up the college with 150 MBBS seats.
Besides, the State has allocated an additional Rs 22 crore for construction of buildings in the campus. In the first phase, the State has released Rs 100 crore while the Union government has released Rs 50 crore. While the medical college buildings will cost Rs 102.55 crore, hospital buildings will come up at a cost of Rs 122.25 crore. Residential quarters and hostels will come up at a cost of Rs 119.2 crore.
The government has obtained permission for establishing 11 new medical colleges in various districts. Of these, foundation stones for Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Dindigul, Tirupur, Namakkal, Nagappattinam, Krishnagiri and Tiruvallur medical colleges have already been laid by the Chief Minister.
Also, he laid foundation stone for Kallakuruchi medical college in the last week.
On the sidelines of Tuesday’s event, Palaniswami inaugurated a CT scan machine for cancer treatment and a linear accelerator facility at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) costing Rs 40 crore, a linear accelerator at a cost of Rs 25 crore at the zonal cancer treatment centre in Coimbatore government medical college, four CT scan facilities at a cost of Rs 24.75 crore at government medical college hospitals in Tirupur, Erode and the district headquarters hospitals at Perambalur and Kancheepuram. Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, Chief Secretary K Shanmugam, principal secretary for public health department J Radhakrishnan and other officials participated.