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Ludhiana administration zeroes in on site for ESIC medical college
Two sites have been proposed for the medical college: the first option is a 45-acre plot owned by the ministry of labour and employment in Doraha and the second is a 17-acre plot on Dharessi road, which once housed the BL Kapoor Hospital
The district administration has zeroed in on a site for the Employees Insurance Corporation’s (ESIC) new medical college.
Two sites have been proposed for the medical college, which will be the first government tertiary care health facility in the district. The first option is a 45-acre plot owned by the ministry of labour and employment in Doraha and the second is a 17-acre plot on Dharessi road, which once housed the BL Kapoor Hospital.
“The district administration has written to us proposing these plots,” ESIC regional director Rakesh Kumar said, adding that they were interested in the site of BL Kapoor Hospital as Doraha was too far from the city.
“Doraha would be very far for our beneficiaries who are industrial workers and live mostly in the city,” Kumar said.
However, he claimed that the site had some encroachment and title issues, saying, “The district administration is working on these issues and we hope to get this site. It is a big plot. We just need 10 acres. We hope the [district administration] can set that much land aside from the site for the college.”
Additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Amarjeet Singh Bains said, “We have proposed these sites and are working on this.”
He added that a third site on Chandigarh Road, opposite Vardhman mills, was also being looked at.
The college is one of the ten ESIC announced to open across the country in September.
ESIC caters to the insured industrial workers who earn below 21,000 rupees per month. There are around 17 lakh beneficiaries in Ludhiana.
A delegation of ESIC had met Bains regarding the land in September. After discussions, they were told that the administration will shortly select a plot according to their requirements.
The college is planned to start by next academic year from the ESIC’s 300-bedded hospital near Bharat Nagar Chowk here. However, as the new building comes up, the college will have its own separate 500-bedded hospital.
“We plan to start college next academic year itself from our hospital. And as we get the land and the building starts to come up we will build a separate hospital for the college,” Kumar said.
The ESIC already runs 69 dispensaries and seven hospitals in the state: the biggest at Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara, Mandi Gobindgarh, and Mohali.
Now, the corporation is working to build new hospitals in Dera Bassi, Rajpura, Malerkotla, Bathinda, and Moga.
ESIC already owns land in Rajpura and for Malerkotla as well they have finalized the plot, while for the rest they are in process of finalizing the plots, According to Regional Director Kumar.
For super specialty care, the ESIC also has empaneled 70 private hospitals where patients are referred to based on their health conditions. “We pay directly to these hospitals and for our beneficiaries it is a cashless procedure,” Kumar said.
