PM Modi to inaugurate CNCI’s 2nd campus in Kolkata today, first since Punjab fiasco – Hindustan Times

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the second campus of the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) in Kolkata on Friday via video conferencing. This will be the first inauguration event that the Prime Minister will take part in following the reported security breach in Punjab on January 5 that led to the cancellation of his scheduled visit to the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala and also laying foundation stone of several developmental projects worth over ₹42,750 crore in Ferozepur.

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Taking to Twitter on Thursday, Modi said the inauguration programme for the CNCI campus will take place at 1pm. “This institute will augment healthcare capacities in eastern India and in the northeast,” the tweet further read.

According to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the second campus of CNCI has been constructed in sync with Modi’s “vision to expand and upgrade the health facilities in all parts of the country”.

“CNCI was facing a heavy load of cancer patients and a need for expansion was being felt for some time. This need will be fulfilled through the second campus,” the statement added.

The new campus of the institute has been built at a cost of more than ₹530 crore, of which, nearly ₹400 crore has been provided by the Centre while the remaining by the West Bengal government, in a ratio of 75:25.

It is a 400-bed comprehensive cancer centre unit for cancer diagnosis, staging, treatment and care. Modern facilities such as nuclear medicine (PET), 3.0 Tesla MRI, endoscopy suite and radionuclide therapy unit, among others, are present at the new campus of CNCI.

On January 4, Modi launched a slew of developmental projects in Manipur and Tripura. In Imphal, the capital of poll-bound Manipur, he inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of as many as 22 developmental projects, including five national highways and a 200-bed Covid hospital. Later, in Tripura capital Agartala, he inaugurated the integrated terminal at the Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport.