Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.
The State Government on Friday inked an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sahyog Health Care and Research Foundation, a charitable trust, for setting up of a 100 seat medical college and hospital at Keonjhar by the latter.
The Government has agreed to provide 20 acres of land free of premium and `10 crore as assistance for the proposed medical which is expected to be operationilised by 2012-end. The MoU was signed by Director of Medical Education and Training Trilochan Sahu and Chairman of the Foundation Sugrib Singh in the presence of Health and Family Welfare Minister Prasanna Acharya, Health Secretary Anu Garg and other officials.
… Chairman of the Foundation Sugrib Singh said though the Government will provide 20 acres of land for the medical college and hospital, they have set a target to purchase 17 acres of land more for the same.
“Initially we would start the medical college and hospital with 100 seats for MBBS course and 300 beds. The Government will give us `10 crore in two installments,” Singh informed.
Singh also informed that they have proposals to set up other colleges dental college (100 seats), BSc nursing college (60 seats), nursing school (100 seats) and a paramedical institute having 100 seats for various streams. The proposed medical college is expected to begin functioning in two years time, Singh informed.
We reported about this earlier on Feb 18th 2010 and June 10th 2010. Additional details about the Sahyog foundation is in those reports.
November 27th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.
The State Government on Saturday decided to provide 20 acres of land free of cost and Rs 10 crore as incentive to Sahayog Healthcare and Research Foundation for its proposed 650-bedded medical college and hospital at Keonjhar. The city based foundation has estimated to spend Rs 80 crore for the project.
… It is to be noted that the Foundation had earlier signed an MoU with the State Government. The Foundation had given proposal of setting up of two medical colleges and hospitals, one at Keonjhar and the other at Jagatpur near Cuttack.
It was known that the Foundation would set up Jagatpur medical collage and hospital at its own cost. The Government would not give any land or financial incentive for the project.
A medical college in Keonjhar is Godsend. But the number "80 crores" and "650 beds" does not add up. Making a medical college costs much more. Also, in an earlier report that in Business Standard (see also https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3900 ) different numbers were reported. So with doubts in my mind, I looked for any additional information on this foundation. I came across the following links:
- The company Call for Care (web page at http://www.call4care.org/ ) which is mentioned as a part of the Sahyog Foundation
- The linked in page of Mr. Rajat Mohanty ( http://in.linkedin.com/pub/rajat-mohanty/21/706/52b ) which says he is the Regional Manager at Call for care( of Sahyoga foundation).
- The supposed web page of Sahyog foundation at http://www.sahyagoaindia.org/ which did not work when I checked (Note: A foundation which is planning to make 2 medical colleges should not be listing a web site which does not work)
- The address of the foundation at Sahyog Foundation, 2nd floor, Plot – 6, Unit III, Kharvel Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha – 751001, (O) +91-674-2390033
I sincerely hope that this is for real. Unfortunately, the non-working website of the foundation http://www.sahyagoaindia.org/ is a warning bell. Also the working web site of its unit http://www.call4care.org does not list the management of the foundation and their background. It does have a list of doctors that they say are part of the program and it lists some health insurance products.
June 20th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
Sahyog Foundation, a city-based non-profit organization, would invest Rs 1100 crore in setting up a medicity spread over 300 acres at Jagatpur near Cuttack as well as a medical college and hospital at Keonjhar.
The amount will be raised by the foundation through a mix of debt and contributions from the promoters and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).
The Keonjhar project which is being taken up on the public private partnership (PPP) mode at an investment of Rs 200 crore will have a medical college with an intake of 50 seats to begin with and a 300-bed hospital.
Debasis Sahoo, director, Sahyog Foundation said, “We will sign the MoU … with the Orissa government for setting up the medical college and hospital at Keonjhar by the end of this month. Apart from alloting 20 acres of land free of cost, the state government has also given us an incentive grant of Rs 10 crore for the project.”
Construction work on the proposed medical college and hospital at Keonjhar is set to take off in April this year and the first batch of students for the MBBS course will be admitted in 2011.
“While the hospital at Keonjhar will offer treatment in various super specialties, the focus will be on malaria ad tuberculosis. Seventy per cent of the beds in this hospital will be reserved for the BPL (Below Poverty Line) families.”
… The medical college and hospital at Keonjhar will offer direct employment opportunities to 3000 people.
For its Rs 900-crore medicity project at Jagatpur, Sahyog Foundation has started the process of land acquisition. The medicity project is expected to be operational by 2014.
Besides a 150-seater medical college and a 700-bed hospital, the medicity will have a homeopathic college, an Ayurvedic college and other public amenities like a shopping mall, gymnasium, swimming pool and food court.
… Apart from generating around 5000 direct jobs, the medicity will also create indirect employment for 150000 people.
Similar news was reported earlier (for example here) but the numbers in those early reports did not make sense.
Similarly there have been news reports (see here and here) about a US based group called Euthenic Group consortium that wants to set up a 1000 bed super speciality hospital in Orissa. However, after seeing the webpage of Euthenic Group (see http://euthenicgroup.com/) I don’t have a good feeling on this. Also I don’t understand what is meant when expressbuzz says the following:
After completion of the project, it will be handed over to the State Government. The hospital will be the property of the State Government.
It does not quite make financial sense that this group will make an hospital and then hand it over to the state government at the end of the completion of project. May be by "at the completion of project" they mean after a long long time; say 30 years.
February 18th, 2010