New Delhi, Nov. 16 :    New Delhi, Nov. 16:  If you are desperate to quit smoking but not able to, look around for a 'smoking cessation clinic' for help. It might cleanse you of nicotine - but you have to make that effort to walk into the clinic and seek the help of its doctors and counsellors. By early next month, there will be 12 smoking 'de-addiction' clinics throughout the country, not just in state capitals but also in smaller towns. The health ministry, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), is putting final touches to this project to make it easier for smokers to live a nicotine-free life. 'We have sent a group of professionals, mostly doctors, to Bangkok to get trained for the project,' says Tapas K. Ray, a key functionary in the WHO's anti-tobacco project. Of the 12 clinics, some will be part of mental health institutions like Vimhans. Others will be independent set-ups run by doctors. For instance, Dr Mahavir, former director-general of health services in Bihar, will set up a smoking cessation clinic in Patna. Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore and Lucknow will have their own. 'We are just working out the list,' informed an official. The therapy will be both medical and psychological. 'We will offer smokers clinical help and also counselling sessions,' says Ray, but objects to describing these clinics as 'de-addiction' centres. 'There is a certain stigma centred around the word de-addiction,' he explains. Medical therapy at the clinics would include nicotine replacement treatment - a reason why the group of professionals in Bangkok includes mostly doctors. They, in turn, will train the paramedical staff. The job of counsellors would be to try and convince smokers about the hazards of nicotine and medical consequences. According to WHO, smoking cessation clinics have been a great success in the UK till the government began slashing costs in the social sector. 'Hundreds and thousands of people have quit smoking,' says Ray. But how cost-effective is it going to be for India? So far, the government does not have an answer. The WHO has already earmarked its allocation for the project - the health ministry will shore it up with its own allotment. But neither can say how much the cost of the treatment is going to be. Ray, however, said: 'For the moment we are not looking at costs.' He says the 12 clinics will begin to function on an 'experimental basis' from next month. In the meanwhile, the government is hoping to soon pass the Tobacco Bill, which is before a parliamentary standing committee. If the Bill comes through, all that the states have to do is adopt a resolution endorsing it, said the WHO.