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Three health infra projects stuck at Chandigarh’s GMCH
All the three projects have been approved three to four years back and the funds too allocated for their completion
Three major health infrastructure projects—a sports injury centre, a new emergency-trauma centre and a mother-child care centre—all planned to come up at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Sector 32 (GMCH-32), have been marred with long delays.
All the three projects have been approved three to four years back and the funds too allocated for their completion.
The mother and child centre, though conceptualised long back, was approved in 2019 and ₹38 crore were allocated for it. The new emergency and trauma centre to come up at an estimated cost of ₹52.77 crore also got the final nod of the administration in 2019. The sports injury centre to come up at a cost of ₹32 crore was approved in 2018.
While the future remains uncertain for the sport injury centre, the mother and child care centre is back to the drawing board stage. For the new emergency and trauma centre, even though the work contract has been allotted, after several hiccups the work is still to pick up pace.
Sports injury centre plans put on back burner
Plans for the sports injury centre, which was to be only the second such facility in the country, has been put on the back-burner. “The priorities of the department have changed now, and there is a rethink over the project,” said CB Ojha, UT chief engineer.
The facility was proposed to be built on 1.6 acres near GMCH-32. As per the original plan, the centre was to have a six-storey building with two basement and parking facilities. Also planned were several key diagnostic facilities like CT scan, MRI and emergency services. Facilities like hydrotherapy lab, physiotherapy units, operation theatres, rooms for resident doctors, the nursing staff and wards were all incorporated in the centre’s plans.
Meanwhile, the mother and child centre is yet to get to the implementation stage. “The client department has once again requested changes in the architectural plans of the facility. After incorporating these changes, a final plan will be made and thereafter only the tendering process will start,” said Ojha.
The centre, with around 330 beds, is planned to come up in the K-block area of GMCH-32. As per the previous architectural plan approved, it would be spread over 1.11 sq ft area having seven floors plus a basement.
Tender allotted for new trauma centre last year
It was last year that the UT engineering department had allotted the tender to a city-based firm for the construction of the new emergency-cum-trauma centre at GMCH.
A target of 18 months was decided for the completion of the project, which was around February 2022. “But the construction work has been marred with delays. Earlier, the work on the project couldn’t start as the permission to cut around 70 trees was not given. The nod by the environment department came only recently. Then there was the issue of oxygen supply: with the second Covid wave at its peak, there was a ban on oxygen supply for industrial and construction purposes,” said a UT official.
The 280-bed facility spread over 1.4 lakh square feet will come up in the place of the existing covered parking block in front of Block A.
The creation of the new facility, an exercise pending for at least a decade, will be a major upgrade for GMCH-32. Since its inception in 1996-97, GMCH has been catering to patients from Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and several other, farther states. At any given point, there are at least 350 patients admitted in the emergency. “We have all the clearances in place now, and the work on the site has started,” said Ojha.
