China to build $ 202 m teaching hospital at Sri Lanka’s Defence University

The Defence Ministry yesterday signed a supplementary agreement with a Chinese company to construct a locally funded teaching hospital for the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU).

Vice Chancellor of the KDU Major General Milinda Peiris and Vice President of Poly Technologies Inc. of China Wang Xingye signed the agreement in the presence of Secretary Defence and Urban Development Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa for a 704-bed, fully-fledged hospital complex.

The Chinese state-owned company will carry out the construction work on the US$ 202 million, locally funded project.

General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) is the only university offering graduate courses in defence studies in the South Asian region. It is also a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (United Kingdom).

The 202 million US dollar project will be locally funded and the Chinese state owned company will carry out the construction work. Once completed the 704 bed fully fledged hospital complex will boast of state of the art medical facilities that are on par with international standards. In addition the multimillion dollar teaching hospital will be a complete eco friendly facility. The project is expected to be complete in two years. Founded in 1981 as a Defence Academy, KDU was elevated to the level of a university in 1986 with the distinctive mission of ensuring a superior quality learner-centered education through academic and professional programmes combined with practical research across many disciplines in the field of defence for its students both local and foreign. The government had also decided to increase the number of scholarships awarded to foreign cadets to the KDU in the south asian region. Cadets who enter the KDU receive world class training in their chosen field of study and the new facility will not only help them to amass specialized knowledge and training but also give them an opportunity to serve the people as well. Established in 2009, the Faculty of Medicine of the KDU is the only national military medical institution of higher education in Sri Lanka. The faculty is responsible for training and graduation of military medical students. The MBBS course is conducted by well experienced academic and medical professionals. With the completion of the teaching hospital the faculty will be well equipped with ultra modern facilities for teaching, training, service and medical research. Furthermore it will provide tertiary care facilities to the general public and service personnel while training both undergraduate and post graduate military medical students.