Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Friday informed that the Shillong Medical College is likely to be made functional by September 2025 and the Tura Medical College by 2026-2027.
Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said, “We have taken a review of the Tura medical college. We expect it to be likely operational sometime 2026-2027. We are still working on a lot of infrastructure institutions because it is very necessary.”
“We have a certain proposal at hand. We are of course going ahead with the constructions. Some of the infrastructures are at very good progress. Recently, there were certain hurdles with regards to the fast tracking of the infrastructure buildings, those have also been sorted out as Chief Minister at his level took a meeting with line departments like PHE, power and PWD so all of those difficulties have also been attended to,” she said.
The minister said, “As far as Shillong medical college is concerned, we are ahead and progressing rapidly. If everything goes right, Shillong medical college should be functional by September 2025.”
She informed that there are so many technicalities which have to be fast tracked.
“We need to look at the building of our own faculty. We have to look at important issues such as the service rules, the amendment of service rules of doctors, so that we ensure that eligible doctors are on board and our service rules permits us to allow doctors to function as teaching doctors. So the government of India has a model for teaching and non-teaching doctors. There is a model for retirement and for everything, so we are now going to be looking at this detail as well,” Lyngdoh said.
The minister said that the NMC still have to come for the inspection and conduct the details of the proposed medical college in Shillong.
“Affiliation issues are also likely to be handled because we have the Captain Williamson Sangma State University now, we have actually engaged with the NEHU but it is taking a very long time. So we are going to look for an option of affiliation with the state owned university,” she informed. She said, “In fact, we have had several consultations with doctors already in the system and we will have to open our expression of interest to doctors especially as we are told from the military background, there are enough doctors, who have just recently retired, who are eligible for teaching.”
The minister said, “The CM is going to be discussing these matters with the Government of India, we will await for the new government formation and as soon as that stabilizes, then we should be able to give you better information but just to keep you abreast on our plans for our own medical colleges, we want to assure the people of Meghalaya that we are sincerely on the job and it looks like we will be able to get a medical college, if everything goes as plan by next year, 2025 session.”
Lyngdoh will also soon take a trip to Uttar Pradesh to study a model in which the government of India had assisted the state government there in setting up six medical colleges.
On the proposed setting up of a medical college in USTM, Ri Bhoi district, the minister said, “There as well there is quick progress of the PA Sangma International hospital that is a PPP model. There is some possibility that that also will become operational very soon but the technical signing of MoUs and other arrangements are now being made. We will keep you abreast once we have specific information to share with the public but there also we have a high probability of having a medical college as close as Khanapara.”
According to her, the government will be handholding the project for a specific number of years.
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