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Campus expansion on card as KGMU acquires 6.5 acres land
The acquired land will not only be used for an academic building but also for increasing patient care services and clinical wards in the institution
The King George Medical University (KGMU) has acquired two new plots of land for free, spanning an area of over 6.5 acres, paving the way for the expansion of the premier medical university.
The first plot of land is 4.7 acres, and is located off Shahmina Road, in place of the UP Sanskrit Shiksha Parishad building, and the neighbouring Girls’ College, and the second is a plot of 1.8 acres behind Jubilee College.
The vice-chancellor Dr Soniya Nityanand said, “After much discussion and disagreements for over a year, we have finally been given this land to expand our campus,” she said.
The surveys and masterplan for these expansions are still to begin and the acquired land will not only be used for an academic building but also for increasing patient care services and clinical wards in the institution.
Academic building and clinical wards in the works
The land behind Jubilee College will be utilised to start a college and hostel for bachelors courses in paramedical sciences, while the other 4.7 acres near Shahmina Road will be dedicated to patient care services and clinical wards.
“We can start to renovate the older wards only once the patients can be shifted somewhere else, and there are several areas in KGMU that require renovation work,” said the VC. “Ultimately, we will be needing a complete second campus,” she added.
Dr KK Singh, from the department of general surgery, further elaborated, “We will identify and prioritise which wards are unable to accommodate enough patients, and we will prioritise shifting those ones to the new building. Those wards will be shifted which tend to have no free beds, and we are unable to admit more patients into those wards,” he explained.
The VC said, “We recognise the importance of paramedical training, and have wanted to start courses at KGMU for a long time. At the new academic campus we will teach courses such as physiotherapy, radiotherapy, optometry and others.”
Dr. Singh added, “There are some wards which have run their course and cannot keep operating in the old department buildings anymore, for example the Paediatrics ward has outlived its time in that building and is in need of a new space - such departments and wards will be shifted to the new part of the campus near Shahmina Road.”
Two buildings to be shifted
“We got that land for free as it already belonged to KGMU, but was not being used by the university. The buildings currently situated there will be relocated before we take over that space,” said Dr Nityanand. “Of course the college will be difficult to shift due to the magnitude of operations and students, but the Sanskrit institute will be moved soon.”
She said that once the survey of the land has been done, further plans for the land will be shared. As for the college and hostel to come up on the land behind Jubilee College, the number of courses, the subjects and number of students have not yet been decided on yet either, but will be soon.
