COIMBATORE: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday arrived in Nilgiris as part of his two-day official visit to the district and neighbouring Coimbatore. On Sunday, he is set to inaugurate the newly-constructed Nilgiris District Government Medical College and Hospital on Sunday.
Around 11.10 am, the CM landed at the Coimbatore Airport and headed to Udhagamandalam. In the evening, he chaired a consultative meeting with DMK district executive committee members at a private hotel in Ooty to discuss election preparedness. Stalin will inaugurate the newly-constructed hospital on Sunday morning and distribute welfare assistance to the public.
The west zone police have been issued elaborate instructions on security arrangements across Nilgiris and the routes the CM is scheduled to travel, according to police sources.
The Nilgiris medical college and hospital has been built at a cost of Rs 499 crore, sources said. The 700-bed facility is the first-of-its-kind in India’s hilly regions after Shimla and includes a 50-bed ward exclusively for tribals. It is also equipped with necessary medical facilities such as 10 operation theatres, MRI and CT scan facilities, etc. Officials noted that this was the first government hospital to have a separate ward for tribals. The construction of the medical college and hospital began in July 2020 across 40 acres of land at Fingerpost in Ooty, at an outlay of Rs 470 crore.
Meanwhile, by January 2022, the college portion was completed and after approval by the National Medical Commission, was opened and admitted 150 MBBS students for the academic year of 2021-22. Meanwhile, works to construct the 700-bedded hospital dragged on for three more years. The delay in construction, according to officials, was due to natural calamities, leading to a revised estimate for the project at Rs 499 crore.