'Challenges became opportunities' at Nagaland's first medical college, says director

NEW DELHI: Nagaland Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (NIMSR), the state's first medical college, started functioning on September 1 with the induction of its first MBBS batch of 100 students.

Dr Soumya Chakraborty, NIMSR dean-cum-director, told Careers360 that she had “never anticipated” the college would be in a position to participate in the admission process (NEET counselling) this year considering the delays and construction challenges faced at the campus in Kohima's Phriebagie.

Chakraborty spoke about the journey of the medical college, her vision of taking NIMSR to new heights and challenges of operating a medical college in that location. Edited excerpts below

Q. Please share the journey of NIMSR, from a Bill to becoming the first fully-functional government medical college in Nagaland.

A. In 2014, the Nagaland government decided the state will have its own medical college. The proposal was sent to the union ministry of health and family welfare in 2014-2015. After central government’s approval, the construction of the college began in 2016-17. The whole project was delayed due to landslides, sinking, natural calamities, followed by Covid-19 pandemic.

We faced challenges as the land alloted for the medical college was in the sinking zone of Kohima. Underground water started flowing into the building after completion of construction in 2018-19 and the soil caved in. It was further delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic in 2019-2021. Later, the engineers made arrangements so that the medical college buildings would never cave in. Construction began once again and was almost completed in 2023.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) officials visited our campus in April this year and were given a Letter of Permission (LoP) for 100 MBBS seats as we have the proper number of faculties and equipment. The college started functioning from September 1, 2023 and we are having regular classes of first year MBBS batch.

Q. Please explain the counselling process of NIMSR and how many students are admitted in the first batch of MBBS ?

A. There are 100 MBBS seats in NIMSR out of which 85 seats are for Nagaland students and 15 seats are All India Quota (AIQ) seats. We have filled 92 seats, including all 85 state quota seats after the second round of NEET UG counselling 2023.

The cut off for the second round was between 300 and 400 marks. The counselling is a collaborative approach of the directorate of technical education with the directorate of health and family welfare of Nagaland government with the participation of NIMSR.

The majority of students who have taken admission here have not applied for upgradation and therefore expect that we will fill all the remaining seats in the third and mop-up rounds with more students joining us very soon.

Students who have taken admission under All India Quota (AIQ) seats are from Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.

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Q. How will NIMSR give a boost to medical education and health infrastructure in Nagaland ?

A. With the functioning of NIMSR, the students of Nagaland will be more interested in pursuing medical courses as they now have a medical college in their own state. Now, they won’t be required to leave their own state to pursue MBBS elsewhere.

NIMSR has a fully-functional teaching hospital and all the state and central government policies related to health are being implemented here. So, we will have all the latest technologies and equipment related to health infrastructure and intend to establish a center of research in NIMSR.

Nagaland has a more rural and less urban demography. The rural population of the state will be highly benefited from NMC’s family adoption programme and community services like health awareness, education and orientation programmes.

Q. What is the NIMSR campus like?

A. We have a 120-acre wifi-enabled campus. We have a facility for computerised assisted learning in the library which has more than 4,000 books related to all medical subjects.

Nagaland focuses on sports a lot and we have a very beautiful sports complex. We have skill labs and all departments are equipped with the latest technology and tools for teaching. We have separate hostels for girls and boys. The hostel rooms are allotted on a twin-sharing basis. We have CCTV in hostels and medical college and there is a facility of reading rooms and indoor games in the hostels.

We also have a counsellor in NIMSR for the mental well being of our students and faculties and shall be implementing a mentor-mentee program.

NIMSR, Kohima campus (Image: NIMSR website)

Q. Apart from MBBS, is there any other course being offered in NIMSR ?

A. Currently, we have only an MBBS course. Another medical college will take three-four years to come up in the district of Mon, bordering Burma. By that time, we are planning to start DNB and postgraduate programmes. The nursing college is also in the beginning phase inside the NIMSR campus and we will begin nursing courses once it becomes fully-functional.

Q. How are the state and central governments supporting NIMSR?

A. As a dean-cum-director of NIMSR, I would always like to seek assistance and facilitation from the union ministry of health and family welfare. Nagaland has resource constraints due to lack of industries and other reasons. So, the Indian government should take this college as a priority in providing financial assistance and help us in the growth.

We have a national medical library enrollment programme for the government medical institutes. All the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are enrolled but I would like to see NIMSR enrolled into this programme so that faculties and students can access reputed journals and books. This will enable us to overcome constraints of resources.

NIMSR can be easily elevated to a central government medical institute like North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) Shillong and Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Imphal or Ranchi. I am saying this because NIMSR has been made over a period of time very successfully.

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Q. You have served in ESIC Medical College Bihta, Patna and are now serving as director of NIMSR. How do you see your new role ?

A. I had joined as dean of ESIC medical college, Bihta, Patna during its start in 2021. The advantage over there was that all buildings and infrastructure were constructed and 70% facilities required for medical education and hospital were available.

I joined NIMSR in December 2022 and infrastructure was completed in this period. The buildings in Nagaland do not have lifts and one has to climb multiple floors on foot. It gives one the zeal and energy.

ESIC medical college helped me in acquiring the experience of starting a medical college and NIMSR has given me the opportunity to learn how to start from scratch. The construction of the building and facility planning took a lot of time and I never anticipated that we would be inducting MBBS students this year.

Therefore, I can say that challenges and difficulties turned out to be the opportunities in Nagaland.

Q. What would be your message to MBBS aspiring students seeking admission in NIMSR in subsequent years ?

A. I would like to tell my students from Nagaland and other parts of the country that it is the students who set the benchmarks for the college. They are the torchbearers and ambassadors of the college. I expect all my students from current and forthcoming batches to take NIMSR to the new heights so that it does not get limited to Nagaland region only and become one of the institutes of national and international importance.