Union minister for petroleum and natural gas Veerappa Moily and Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi lay the foundation stone of the super speciality hospital in Sivasagar on Sunday. Picture by UB Photos

Sivasagar, Nov. 17: Union minister for petroleum and natural gas Veerappa Moily today said courses of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology would start from January next year.

“Short-term courses will start from January following demand of local industries, including the gas cracker project in Dibrugarh. The modalities will be discussed in December and the courses will start temporarily in Jorhat. Full-time courses will start after completion of the campus in Sivasagar in 2016,” the minister said at a news conference here today.

Earlier, Moily and chief minister Tarun Gogoi jointly laid the foundation stone of a 300-bed super speciality hospital at Rajabari near Demow in Sivasagar district today.

To be constructed under corporate social responsibility initiative of the ONGC, the hospital is expected to fulfil the long-felt need of the people of the district which has no quality healthcare.

Delivering his speech, Moily said the ONGC had already sanctioned Rs 100 crore for the hospital and added that a 50-acre plot had already been handed over to the ONGC by the district administration.

“Three reputed hospital chains — Narayana Hrudayalaya, Apollo group and Fortis group have expressed their willingness to run the hospital,” he said.

Moily added that construction of the hospital would be done in three phases. “The first phase will involve construction of the 300-bed hospital and staff quarters for the 700 doctors and other employees of the hospital. In the second phase, the number of beds will be increased to 500 and a nursing and paramedical college will be set up.”

Moily said the ONGC has planned to start a medical and dental college and to facilitate cardio-surgery, onco-surgery and other advance medical treatment at the hospital in the third phase.

Speaking on the occasion, Gogoi pledged unflinching support and cooperation for the earliest completion of the hospital.

The ONGC had announced to set up the hospital in 2010. However, there were resentments from various quarters for delay in selection of a site for the proposed hospital.

According to ONGC officials, the multi-speciality hospital will provide secondary and tertiary-level medical care in broad specialities like cardiology, neurology, nephrology, ENT, oncology (medical, surgical and radiation), orthopaedics and allied departments.

Subsequently, a committee was constituted on January 3, 2013. The nine-member joint inspection committee comprising representatives of Sivasagar district administration and ONGC was formed to locate a suitable land required for the mega project.

The committee visited various sites in and around Sivasagar town and zeroed in on four tentative sites for the project.

Finally, ONGC management declared in June that a plot of land, measuring 50 acres, had been acquired at Rajabari, about 8km from Sivasagar for the proposed 300-bed multi-speciality hospital of the ONGC.