IIT Kanpur had signed an agreement with Rakesh Gangwal, a distinguished alumnus and the co-founder of IndiGo airlines, to work together in establishing a Medical School at the IIT Kanpur campus. Its foundation was laid by the Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The Gangwal School of Medical Sciences and Technology will be the first super-speciality teaching hospital with a medical college campus in India. Its construction is divided into two phases, occupying an approximate area of 8,10,000 sq ft.

IIT Kanpur, known for its engineering and science disciplines, will now set up a one-of-a-kind medical school. Rakesh Gangwal has contributed Rs 100 crore towards the establishment of this hospital-cum-school.

The medical school will have a super-speciality hospital with 450+ beds and a Cancer Care and Research Centre with 50 beds, an academic block, residential blocks for the doctors, and multiple Centres of Excellence (CoE), built with the help of JK Cements Limited and the grants from IBM and REC Foundation.

Director of IIT Kanpur, Prof Abhay Karandikar, said, “The proposed medical school will play an important role in driving IIT Kanpur’s innovations in medical research and technology and catapult India into the global league of institutions that are converging medical sciences and technology to benefit humankind.”

According to the reports, the first phase of the medical school at the IIT Kanpur campus will be constructed in around 3-5 years, while the second phase will take about 7-10 years.