July 23, Colombo: Sri Lanka's defence academy had received the go-ahead from the cabinet to establish a medical faculty to train officer cadets as doctors for the armed forces.

The Cabinet Thursday gave the approval to obtain necessary funds from the Treasury to complete construction work of the building for a Medical Faculty in the General Sir John Kotalawala Defence University.

The building construction is to be completed in three phases during the years 2010/11 and 2012. Sri Lanka Army is entrusted with the construction work.

The new Medical Faculty at the Defence University has been established in affiliation with the Ruhunu University. Initially, 25 Officer Cadets have been enlisted to follow the program.

The Cabinet took the decision to enlist Officer Cadets to be trained as doctors from this year due to the acute shortage of medical staff in the three armed forces.