Agartala: The Tripura Government has sent a Rs 2000-Crore proposal to the center for setting up North East India’s second Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Agartala, after upgrading the infrastructure and facilities at the Tripura Medical College (TMC), a top official said on Wednesday.
State Health Secretary Dr. Debashish Basu said the government has already sent the proposal to the Union Ministry of Health for approval. Chief Minister Manik Saha held discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the proposal during their meeting on Monday in New Delhi.
Basu indicated that a central expert team would visit the state soon for an inspection after getting the green signal from the ministry.
“We have made our working plan, and as soon as the proposal is accepted, the entire manpower and equipment would be integrated with the new facility and it would be a centrally controlled autonomous body.”
Apart from that, the Tripura government has been contemplating setting up an AIIMS-like healthcare facility in the state for the last four years and the central government has agreed to the demand in principle. The state government has also identified two plots of land – one at Mohanpur and another at Bodhjungnagar in the northern and eastern outskirts of Agartala for the project, Basu said.
Tripura has been striving to develop healthcare facilities like other growing cities through private investment but was yet to make any headway.
The Health Secretary said to overcome the shortage of doctors, the department is working on a model to introduce the e-Hospital facility in Agartala Government Medical College on a pilot basis besides improving the diagnostic facilities to provide expert medical support to the sub-division level hospital.
He highlighted that the Tripura government has introduced heart surgery and medication, neurosurgery, neurological care, surgical oncology, and emergency care in the medical college, which has reduced the referral load of patients from the state. Moreover, the government is also providing financial support to poor people for critical treatment across the country.
