When
the then Prince of Wales, Edward, visited Patna, 99 years ago, on December 22 as
a part of his royal tour of India, the government bestowed him with the honour of naming the
first medical college of Bihar and Orissa after him but this iconic structure
has now become a target of India’s voracious urban consumption habits.

The
historic Patna medical college, that traces its origin to the Temple Medical School set up in 1874 in Patna, is
constantly being threatened by the model of ‘Development’ as we know it.

“It’s
sad, this pioneering institution has been shorn of its glory first and now we
might lose the old heritage, too, which should be preserved for
posterity,” said Prateek Nishant, a PMCH alumnus whose great grandfather,
Tarini Prasad Sinha, was among the first-graduating batch in 1927.

The
royal marble name stone, installed right outside the principal’s office, which
proudly bears the old name of the college and the Prince of Wales royal
however, tells the story of its inception and the prestige it enjoyed earlier,
all but faded now.

The reclining
historic buildings that culminates the college campus, including the Bankipore
General Hospital and Women Hospital, which were equipped with special lifts in
that era are clouded with the fear of overbearing technology, ready to steal
the magical beauty of its architecture.

Not
for the first and definitely not the last time, these iconic old buildings are threatened
to be dismantled in multiple phases in the name of redevelopment plan of the
Bihar government that was drawn up few years ago and faced opposition from its
alumni spread across the world.

Bihar
and Orissa’s first medical college was established in 1925, four
years after Prince Edward’s visit in Bankipore, not very far from the Gandhi Maidan,
where the Great durbar in the reverence of prince was held.

The
newly created institution, which stands on the banks of river Ganga as a “priceless
heritage of the city” was officially inaugurated two years later after its
set up.

However,
a few decades after the Independence, it was renamed to Patna Medical College and
Hospital or PMCH, as it is popularly known today.