Mandi – Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday announced that Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College, Nerchowk, in Mandi district, will start robotic surgery later this year, making it the third medical college in Himachal Pradesh to adopt the advanced surgical technology.
Presiding over the IRIS-2025 programme at the college, the Chief Minister said that the initiative marks a major step toward modernising healthcare infrastructure in the state. Robotic surgery has already been successfully introduced at Chamiyana and Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda, where 45 surgeries have been performed using robotic systems.
Sukhu announced a sanction of ₹28 crore for the installation of an MRI machine at the college, which will be operational within two months. He also sanctioned ₹12 crore for establishing a cath lab, with ₹9 crore already released. “Our doctors are highly skilled, but outdated equipment often limits their efficiency. The government is committed to replacing old machinery with advanced systems to ensure better healthcare for all,” he said.
He further announced that smart diagnostic laboratories modelled on AIIMS, New Delhi, will soon be established in all government medical colleges of the state. These laboratories will enable 100 different tests to be conducted from a single blood sample, for which the government has sanctioned ₹75 crore.
To address the shortage of trained manpower in the health sector, the Chief Minister said that the number of seats in medical colleges has been increased, and 38 new posts have been created in the emergency medicine department.
