After waiting for over 11 years, the Shillong Civil Hospital cancer wing is all set to be inaugurated this December.
Informing about this, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said, the cancer wing of the Shillong Civil Hospital by December this year, the Shillong Engineering College too will be inaugurated in December.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma said, “I am happy to see the progress of both the projects and I expect that civil works of both the projects should be completed and we should be able to inaugurate them by the first or second week of December.”
“The Shillong Engineering College will definitely be done but the cancer wing we have to wait for the equipment but in the meantime the old equipment that we have will be used and we should be able to inaugurate both the buildings in the month of December,” he said.
It has been a long wait since the foundation stone for the cancer wing was laid in March 2011.
There was a delay in the project in the past due to multiple issues which the government has addressed.
The rise in the number of cancer cases in the state has become a matter of concern. As per data released by Indian Council of Medical Research – National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (ICMR-NCDIR) in 2021, Meghalaya is ranked second in the country in terms of cancer prevalence among men while it is ranked 11 in the number of cancer cases among women.
As per the data, Meghalaya has 227.9 cancer cases per one lakh population among men and 118.6 cases per one lakh population among women.