PM to inaugurate 11 medical colleges in Tamil Nadu today

11 medical colleges as well as a Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, via video conferencing due to the rise in Covid-19 cases in the state.The total cost of the projects comes to over ₹4000 crore for the medical colleges alone, which have a cumulative capacity of 1450 seats.

"These medical colleges will augment health infrastructure and ensure affordable healthcare to the people of Tamil Nadu...The culture of Tamil Nadu is globally admired. It is our constant endeavour to preserve and celebrate this culture. In this context, a new campus of Central Institute of Classical Tamil will also be inaugurated tomorrow," the Prime Minister announced on Twitter.

The colleges have been constructed at an estimated cost of nearly ₹4000 crore, of which around ₹2415 crore has been given by the Union government under the "Establishing of New Medical Colleges attached with existing district/referral hospital' scheme, which allows for construction of colleges in areas which do not have a private or government-run medical college.

The remaining amount has been provided by the state. The 11 districts where the medical institutes have been set up are the Nilgiris, Thiruvallur, Nagapattinam, Namakkal, Dindigul, Kallakurichi, Ariyalur, Ramanathapuram, Krishnagiri, Tiruppur and Virudhunagar.

As for the CICT, which is currently operating from a rented building, the PM's office has announced that the new campus will "provide an efficient working environment for the institute in its pursuit of promoting classical Tamil across the world." The CICT will allow students to access over 45,000 books in pursuit of studying Tamil, its origins and its unique heritage.

"An autonomous organisation under the Union ministry of education, CICT is contributing to the promotion of classical Tamil by doing research activities to establish the ancientness and uniqueness of Tamil language," the government release said. The campus was built at a cost of ₹24 crore and has facilities like a.multimedia hall and e-library.

All of the activities scheduled for today will be done remotely after the Prime Minister was forced to cancel his visit to Tamil Nadu over rising Covid-19 cases in the state. The inauguration will begin at 4PM today.