Guwahati, Oct. 7: Union health and family welfare minister J.P. Nadda today set a 15-day deadline for the approval of the detailed project report of the 500-bed hospital project at Naharlagun so that work on it does not suffer.

The time frame was set after Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu called on Nadda in New Delhi and informed that the state government was committed to start the academic session of Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Science during 2017-18, the chief minister's office said.

Khandu, who is on a tour of Delhi, requested the Union minister's intervention to relax Medical Council of India (MCI) norms for recruitment of faculties so as to enable the state government to man the faculty posts, as far as possible, with the present specialist doctors in Arunachal Pradesh.

He sought the help of the minister to put in a word to AIIMS and NEIGRIHMS (Shillong) to help operate the first medical college of the state.

Khandu had a detailed discussion with Union minister of state for telecommunication Manoj Sinha on the way to remove the bottlenecks in the sector.

While assuring all-out support to the state, the Union minister told the chief minister that BSNL has plans of expansion in the state.

He said under the first phase of Bharatnet, 863 gram panchayats of the state would be covered by March 2017.