Silchar, Oct 25: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday laid the foundation stone for multiple development projects worth Rs 1,000 crore in Silchar during his two-day visit to Barak Valley.

As part of the initiatives, CM Sarma inaugurated the construction of a 208-bedded Super Speciality Hospital at Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH), to be built at a cost of around Rs 300 crore under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The hospital will feature six advanced clinical departments Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Nephrology, and Urology with 20 beds per department, along with emergency, ICU, post-operative, pre-operative, dialysis beds, and 25 paying cabins. The project is targeted for completion within 30 months.

Highlighting the state’s progress in healthcare, the Chief Minister noted that MBBS seats in Assam have increased from 360 in 2006 to 2,000, while postgraduate seats have risen from 150 to 1,500. He said Silchar Medical College is receiving focused attention under the Assam Health System Strengthening Project.

Sarma also announced reconstruction of Silchar Civil Hospital at a cost of Rs 150 crore. A new 500-bed hospital building within the SMCH campus is expected to be completed by year-end, and the old main building will be replaced with a modern 1,500-bedded facility.

The Chief Minister added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for a new Rs 35,000-crore highway connecting Barak Valley to Guwahati in the next three to four months.

The event was attended by Ministers Kaushik Rai and Krishnendu Paul, MPs Parimal Suklabaidya and Kanad Purkayastha, MLAs Dipayan Chakraborty, Mihir Kanti Shome, Nihar Ranjan Das, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, and senior officials including Commissioner and Secretary of Medical Education and Research Siddhartha Singh and SMCH Principal Prof. Debabrata Sinha.