Will NIT-Rourkela rue missed chance or revive proposal?

ROURKELA: With IIT-Kharagpur all set to offer MBBS course from the current academic session, NIT-Rourkela authorities are ruing a missed opportunity when the institute’s board of governors’ rejected a similar proposal more than two years back.

However, NIT-R Director Prof Animesh Biswas, who was instrumental in getting the proposal sanctioned said, the institute can still revive it. 

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had sanctioned a proposal to set up a medical college for NIT-R on April 5, 2018.

The idea was to produce a new breed of highly skilled medical professionals and engineers, integrating knowledge of the complexities of both the streams.

But on August 6, 2018, the then chairman of the board of governors, Dr Santrupt B Misra rejected the proposal terming it ‘premature’. He had said NIT-R neither had the expertise nor capital to move ahead with the proposal. 

However, Biswas says a medical college and advanced research centre will help NIT-R grow, boost local economy and address the shortage of highly skilled manpower in the country.

“We are trying to expand in electronics and other technological applications in medical sciences. The main objective of the proposal was to boost research in medical sciences and produce quality manpower,” he said. 

A lot has changed in last 30 months and it is now tough for the institute to revive proposal. While Prof Biswal is retiring in September, the Union government is now focused on upgrading Rourkela Steel Plant’s Ispat General Hospital into a super-speciality facility and medical college. The post of the chairman of board of governors too is lying vacant after Dr Misra retired last year. 

The administration of the institute has been silent over the proposal since it was set aside by the board of governors.

While a few officials feel the institute has the infrastructure and expertise to run a medical college and research centre, others allege the board of governors’ decision was more to do with reluctance to shoulder bigger responsibilities.