IIT-Kharagpur medical college in two years

Indian Express, Oct 20, 2010
The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, is upbeat about the medical school they believe will come up in the next two years. According to senior officials of IIT-Kgp, the Centre is likely to introduce a bill in the Parliament in the next session to change IIT Act so that the institute can run a medical college.

“We have decided to name the medical college Bidhan Chandra Institute of Medical Sciences in the honour of the first chief minister of the state,” Damodar Acharya, the director of IIT-Kgp said.

Acharya said the institute which will come up in 2012 will have an investment of Rs 500 crore. Recently the institute, with support from the Indian Railways, tied up with the 250-bed Railway hospital at Kharagpur. “We plan to use the Railway hospital as a teaching hospital. For medical research, we need to connect with a hospital that has a steady number of patients. This hospital gets about 1 lakh patients every year and will help us in research,” he said.

The institute officials said they are also open to join hands with premier healthcare institutions in the country and abroad. “Our focus will be post-graduate medical education and research,” said A K Majumdar, the deputy director of IIT-Kgp.


According to officials of the institute, the oldest IIT in the country has a history of diversifying into other domains. The institute first set up a B-School, then a law school and now is venturing into medical education.