BHUBANESWAR: With no takers for management of Mahanadi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (MIMSAR), Talcher, the State government on Tuesday made a fresh request to the Coal Ministry for ensuring the facility is operationalised at the earliest.
Chief Secretary Suresh Mohapatra made the request to Union Additional Secretary in Union Coal Ministry M Nagaraju and senior officers of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) during a review of coal production and transportation at a high-level meeting here. Nagaraju said MCL is in the process of evaluating the letters of intent received from some private bidders for running the institute. The subsidiary of Coal India Limited will take a call soon and the institute will be handed over to one of the bidders which has the expertise in managing a medical college and hospital professionally.
After the State government refused to take over the management of the MCL-funded medical college and hospital, the PSU is in a fix as it did not receive any response to its tenders for managing the facility. After two unsuccessful attempts, MCL has floated tender for the third time and the evaluation process is on. Recently, MCL CMD PK Sinha told TNIE that the evaluation process of the bidding to award the contract to the most suitable party is on. MCL is keen to start the academic session at the medical college at the earliest.
The State government and MCL had signed an MoU for MIMSAR in 2014. The construction of the was building started in 2016 and completed in 2018. It was inaugurated by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in 2019. The institute is built over 20 acre of land at a cost of `500 crore and has 100 seats and 500 beds. While the first batch of MBBS students was supposed to be enrolled in the medical college in 2019-20, it did not happen.