National Cancer Institute to come up at Jhajjar

The Centre today cleared a proposal for setting up of National Cancer Institute at the Jhajjar campus of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, at a cost of Rs 2035 crore.
The cancer institute will be located in Badhsa village in Jhajjar of Haryana, near Delhi and will be completed in a period of 45 months.
Approving the Health Ministry's proposal, the Union Cabinet cleared a long-pending demand of Haryana government.
The step is being considered as a landmark in the area of cancer research in the country and shall lessen the deficit of tertiary cancer care in the Northern region.

Cancer is emerging as a major public health concern in India, where 11 lakh new cases are diagnosed every year and the mortality rate is 5.5 lakh per year.
Cancer treatment facilities in India are lagging behind when compared to WHO standards that requires a radiotherapy machine per million population. India at present has 0.41 machines per million population and the setting up of this institute will herald a new chapter in the initiative against cancer.
The Institute will have 710 beds for different facilities like surgical oncology, radiation oncology, medical oncology, anaesthesia and palliative care and nuclear medicine. It will also have the first of its kind Tissue Repository in India.

HSCC (India) Ltd, a public sector enterprise under the administrative control of the Health & Family Welfare Ministry has been appointed as Project Consultant for it by AIIMS Delhi.