ESIC spends Rs 5,345 cr on 12 medical college projects

Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) spent Rs 5,345.5 crore till September on its 12 medical college projects, which is over half of the estimated cost, Parliament was informed today.
The estimated cost of the 12 medical college projects was Rs 9,990.84 crore and ESIC has incurred an expenditure of Rs 5,345.5 crore by September 30 last year, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
The ESIC has decided to focus on providing primary, secondary and super speciality medical care services to its insured persons and exit the field of medical education entirely as it is not its core function, the minister said.

The minister further said that around Rs 10,000 crore was allocated for 12 ESIC medical college projects which are under construction.
The annual expenditure likely to be incurred on running of a medical college is about Rs 60-80 crore and associated 500 bed hospital is about Rs 100-125 crore, he added.
ESIC has also decided to hand over on-going medical colleges and other medical education institutions having separate infrastructure to state governments willing for such transfers, the minister said.
These under construction medical colleges are located at Patna, Basaidarapur, Faridabad, Mandi, Gulbarga, Rajajinagar (Bangalore), Paripally (Kollam), Alwar, Coimbatore, K K Nagar (Chennai), Sanathnagar (Hyderabad) and Joka (Kolkata).