Nitish Kumar lays foundation for cancer institute

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar laid the foundation stone for Rs 138 crore ‘State Cancer Institute’ at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) here on Thursday. The CM also laid the foundation stone for a 300kilowatt solar rooftop power plant at the hospital.
To start with, there will only be 150 beds in the cancer institute which will be increased to 180 in the future. The institute will enrol physicists, oncologists, radiation oncologists, senior physicists, nuclear medicine specialists and other doctors.

Equipment for treatment will include linear accelerators for high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy as well as low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy. The institute will have a wide range of treatment modalities supported by equipment, such as a CT simulator to determine the exact location, shape, and size of the tumour to be treated, a PET-CT for diagnostics, a cyclotron for proton therapy and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, which helps doctors to plan cancer treatments, such as surgery or radiation therapy. The newly inaugurated solar plant, on the other hand, has been set up with an investment of Rs 1.56 crore.

The CM said a new 1200-bed hospital block would come up on IGIMS premises soon. “The state government will consider demolishing old structures of the hospital and constructing new ones in their place for the development of IGIMS,” Nitish said. Sources said funds to the tune of Rs 800crore would be utilised for construction of the new block at IGIMS.

The CM also visited the proposed site of the regional institute of ophthalmology at IGIMS. Sources said Rs 178.02 crore would be spent to set up a multi-storey building for the proposed ophthalmology institute. It will be equipped with modern and hi-tech eye care equipment on the pattern of Dr R P Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-New Delhi.

The administrative building of a proposed medical college at IGIMS was also inaugurated on Thursday.