Nagaon, Feb. 18: Union minister for health and family welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda today laid the foundation stone of Nagaon Medical College at Mohkhuli, 5km from here, bringing an end to two decades of speculation.

Nadda was accompanied by state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, minister of state for railways Rajen Gohain, who is also the MP from Nagaon, PWD minister Parimal Sukla Badya and three Nagaon legislators, Rupak Sarma, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and Angoorlata Deka.

"This was a long-pending dream of the people of central Assam and finally we have fulfilled it. Work for the Rs 169-crore project will start from tomorrow and will be completed within three years," he said.

Nadda also announced two super-speciality blocksin Dibrugarh Medical College and Hospital and Gauhati Medical College and Hospital for which New Delhi will give Rs 190 crore.

Yesterday, Nadda had conducted bhumi pujan for Dhubri Medical College and Hospital on the Dhubri civil hospital campus.

He said the initiatives were the outcome of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stress on speedy development of the northeastern region.

The proposal to set up a healthcare institution at Mohkhuliwas made in 1996 by the then AGP-led government. It gave 25 hectares of land to construct a building to shift Bhogeswari Phukanani civil hospital from the present location to the site. The infrastructure and the area were later used as a camp for security forces. In 2004, the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government received around Rs 14 crore as assistance from the European Commission to shift the civil hospital to Mohkhuli but the project did not materialise. In June 2006, the Gogoi government announced a multi-crore rupee nursing college project at Mohkhuli. In 2007, a waste incinerator was proposed to be set up there. In 2016, then Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi laid the foundation stone of a medical college at the site.

Sarma today said work on the medical college would start from tomorrow. "Our BJP government will not leave a work unfinished after its inauguration. Today we start the work and it will be finished within the scheduled time."

He said Rs 756 crore will be spent to set up four new medical colleges in the state - Dhubri, Nagaon, Diphu and Lakhimpur.

After years of waiting, the local residents are, however, sceptical. Mainuddin Rahman, a Mohkhuli villager, said, "We are not yet sure what will be done in that area. We will believe when we see the medical college at Mohkhuli".