The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, is expected to induct its first batch of MBBS students by 2020-21, PTI reported on Thursday. “The first phase of construction of the Dr BC Roy Institute of Medical Science & Research will get over by June this year and we are working towards making the hospital operational from 2018,” said Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director of IIT-Kharagpur. “Then, as per regulation, we can start offering the MBBS programme by 2020-2021.”

In the first phase of construction, the hospital and ancillary building would be built, while residential towers for doctors, students and support staff would be constructed in the second, Bhattacharyya explained.

The Dr BC Roy Institute of Medical Science & Research will come up in the Balarampur area adjoining the IIT campus on an 18-acre parcel of land. It will have 400 beds, which will later be increased by 350. The Union Human Resource Development had sanctioned Rs 150 crore for the project. The remaining amount might be raised through donations, he said.

The IIT will not directly run the hospital but will, instead, create a registered society. It will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the society to run the hospital on a no-profit, no-loss mode.