Rs 50-Crore Knowledge Centre Planned at Kurnool Medical College

Anantapur: Alumni of Kurnool Medical College (KMC) living abroad have come forward to set up a Rs 50-crore Knowledge Centre for the benefit of students and staff.

Industries, Commerce and Food Processing Minister T.G. Bharat thanked the KMC staff for unanimously approving the project proposed by the alumni. He was speaking while chairing a meeting of the Medical College and Government General Hospital (GGH) Development Committee at KMC on Friday.

The minister said the Knowledge Centre would be built on 66.66 cents of approved land and would house an advanced library, research centre, gym, pavilion, indoor games complex and a meeting hall. The project is expected to be completed within one year.

During the meeting, officials raised infrastructure-related issues. Regional Eye Hospital Superintendent Dr Satyanarayana Reddy flagged inadequate drainage and deterioration of the old building, to which the Minister assured repairs on the lines of works taken up at the GGH and sanctioned immediate procurement of an optical sonography device.

GGH superintendent Dr Venkateshwarlu said the IPM building remained incomplete due to lack of funds and could be finished quickly if funds were released. He also informed that a 150-bed night-stay facility for patient attendants, costing Rs 14.16 crore, is proposed through the Power Grid Corporation and will be constructed by NBCC.

Medical College Vice-Principal Dr Sai Sudheer sought additional rooms for the men’s hostel. Orthopaedics Professor Srinivas Reddy requested free implants for poor patients under the NTR Vaidya Seva Scheme, which the Minister said would be taken up with the Chief Minister.

A Trauma Care professor said the Prime Minister had proposed a state-of-the-art Trauma Care and Burns Treatment Centre in Andhra Pradesh, and that Kurnool had strong potential to host such a facility.