Faulty design makes guard room unfit for living

THE NEWLY-CONSTRUCTED guard room on the SN Children's Hospital campus has become a resting place for stray dogs, cattle and occasionally pigs as it is virtually unfit for use by human beings during the rainy season. What's more, the eight feet by ten feet room is also sometimes used for parking vehicles and the nine guards posted at the hospital conduct duty from under a tree shade.All this is because the rain water enters upto four feet in the guard's room due to faulty design.

THE NEWLY-CONSTRUCTED guard room on the SN Children's Hospital campus has become a resting place for stray dogs, cattle and occasionally pigs as it is virtually unfit for use by human beings during the rainy season.

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What's more, the eight feet by ten feet room is also sometimes used for parking vehicles and the nine guards posted at the hospital conduct duty from under a tree shade.

All this is because the rain water enters upto four feet in the guard's room due to faulty design.

Barely after ten days it was handed over to the hospital administration the rain water started entering into the guard room.

Besides several other construction related defects also became visible a few days later. While it has no seating arrangement for the guards, there is also seepage of rain water from the tin roof.

The paint has started to peel off from the walls due to moisture and small ratio of cement used in its construction. Moreover, the middle wall of the guard room was left unpainted.

Even the electricity connection has also not been provided in the room.

The guards pooled the money to affix an electricity board in the room.

But it was not an end to their problem.

The heavy rain last week exposed the faulty design of the guard room. Due to slope and low height of the tin roof, the rain water entered upto four feet inside the room.

The guards have expressed anger over the poor construction quality of the room but no one is ready to speak out to the Press, in the fear of losing the job.

However a hospital staff, on condition of anonymity, said, "the work has been done by contractor approved by the hospital management.

He had obviously given a heavy commission for getting the construction work and later wanted to recover it by using poor quality material."

MLN Medical College principal Dr PC Saxena said he would look into the matter, as it was a serious complaint.

Despite repeated attempts, the former CMS of SN Children's Hospital could not be contacted for his comments.