Assam signs MoU to set up India's first public proton beam therapy unit
The state will establish the centre in Guwahati at a cost of Rs 600 crore using a World Bank loan.
The Assam government signed an agreement with Belgium's Ion Beam Applications Particles on Saturday to establish India's first public sector proton beam therapy centre in the state, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The project in Guwahati will cost an estimated Rs 600 crore. Of this, the World Bank will provide Rs 315 crore as a loan, while the state will contribute Rs 285 crore, Sarma said.
The investment will cover the building, machines, and training for the centre. Sarma stated that setting up the facility will take a minimum of three years.
The technology, which attacks tumours with precision while sparing healthy tissues, has previously been available only in private Indian hospitals at costs of up to Rs 50 lakh. Sarma said the centre will be the third in India, following Tata Cancer Hospital in Mumbai and Apollo Hospital in Chennai, but it will be the first government-run facility.
The establishment of the centre was approved by the state cabinet in August under the Assam State Secondary Healthcare Initiative for Service Delivery Transformation project of the Assam Health Infrastructure Development & Management Society.
Sarma noted that there are only 40 proton beam therapy centres in the world. He added that the state is setting up 17 cancer hospitals, with 12 currently functional.