ALAPPUZHA: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has agreed to provide a loan of Rs.30 crores for the development of Alappuzha, Kottayam and Thrissur medical colleges, Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy has said.

She was addressing a press conference on the medical college campus at Vandanum here on Thursday, after discussing with various Ministers and officials the issue of developing Alappuzha Medical College Hospital and its shifting from the present building in the Alappuzha Municipality to the Vandanum campus.

Ms. Sreemathy said these medical colleges would get Rs.10 crores each for development. She said the general medicine, ophthalmology and paediatrics departments of Alappuzha medical college would be shifted before January 1, 2007.

She pointed out that apart from the NABARD loan, the Government had allocated Rs.15 crores for shifting the hospital and its development in the revised Budget.

The Minister said the shifting process would be completed in a time bound manner and funds would not be a problem as NABARD had agreed to provide further loans.

The Health Minister said a special officer would be appointed for coordinating the shifting process and an advisory committee formed to help the special officer.

She said Alappuzha District Hospital would be shifted to the building where Medical College Hospital was functioning and it would be upgraded as a full-fledged hospital.

Alappuzha Government Beach Hospital would be developed as a women and children's hospital, she added.

Ms. Sreemathy said the Government would take steps to solve the shortage of staff in medical colleges and said the DMOs had been asked to fill all sanctioned posts.

She said the hospital development committees in the State would be streamlined and made more powerful. She said the Government would allot Rs.3 crores for the development of the State Virology Institute in Alappuzha.

Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, who participated in the discussions, said with Nabard agreeing to release funds, financial constraints for developing the hospital had been removed.

He said at least Rs.40 crores was needed for completing the construction of buildings and the Government planned to complete the work in three modules.

Minister for Cooperation G. Sudhakaran who also participated in the discussions said the Government's aim was to develop three full-fledged hospitals in Alappuzha as the district lacked proper medical facilities.

Alappuzha MLA K.C. Venugopal also participated in the discussions and the press conference.

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