Adani to set up medical college at Bhuj

Ahmedabad: The Adani Group will set up a medical college at Bhuj with a capital investment of Rs 100 crore over the next four years to create the necessary infrastructure at the district headquarters of Kutch.

The college proposes to admit the first batch of 150 students in August 2009. This would be Gujarat’s 14th medical college.

To be known as the Gujarat Adani Institute of Medical Sciences (GAIMS), the college would be set up on lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

In fact, AIIMS had originally planned to open such an Institute at Bhuj during Mr Vajpayee’s regime, soon after the 2001 earthquake, but the plan could not take off.

For setting up the medical college in the premises of this hospital, the State Government’s Department of Health and Family Welfare and the Adani Education and Research Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on August 26, Dr Bakul Dholakia, Advisor to the Adani Group, said.

Under the PPP, which is part of the Adani Group’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) as a joint venture, would be set up to which about 25 acres and other assets would be transferred this month before Diwali.

This land is where the existing 300-bed G K General Hospital is situated and the college would be set up. In the 2001 temblor, the hospital had completely collapsed and was later reconstructed with a Rs 100-crore Central grant.