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Sassoon hospital’s 11-storey building construction work delayed by 7 years in Pune
Shirole cited changes in council of ministers as the main reason for the delay behind the completion of the work at Sassoon
Sassoon General Hospital’s ambitious 11-storey building plan that was approved in 2009 and construction also began, still lies incomplete.
The state-run hospital which got approval for the building on the hospital’s premises near the mortuary began work in 2009 and was to be completed in the next three year. However, many changes in the council of ministers led to delay in work, says a senior medical staff.
With a promise to make the building functional in the next one year, Anil Shirole, member of Parliament (MP) said, “We have had many meetings with Girish Mahajan, state medical education minister, and hope the building will be ready by the end of next year.”
Shirole cited changes in council of ministers as the main reason for the delay behind the completion of the work at Sassoon.
Dr Pravin Shingare, former director, medical education and research Maharashtra, said, “We wanted to build a state-of-the-art hospital which will have all kinds of facilities for patients. We are known as a hospital for the poor, and to change this public perception, we had planned a bigger and better project. We were supposed to complete it by the end of 2011 and 2012, but the project got stuck. The reason for the delay was changes in the council of ministers.”
“When the building was approval and the construction work started, Dr Vijay Kumar Gavit was the medical education minister, later came Vinod Tawde, Jeetendra Awhad, Ajit Pawar and now Girish Mahajan. So many changes in just a few years affected the project as every minister had his own vision and wanted to changes made to the building. We are hopeful that in Mahajan’s tenure the work will be completed,” Shingare said.
“There were changes in the way the architecture should look, some wanted particular wood, changes in partition, changes in operation theatre among others. Now, the new plan also includes adding a liver transplant unit, kidney transplant unit along with the heart transplant unit. It is a massive project,” Shingare said.
The project is currently handled by Niranjan Telang, chief engineer, public works department (PWD). One of Telang’s colleagues who requested anonymity said, “There were certain sanctions that were pending and a lot of changes happened in the last few years. Now, we hope that the building will be functional by the end of next year. The works that are remaining include electrical, civil work, furniture, windows, doors among others. At least 50 per cent is pending which will be completed soon.”
So far, the public works department confirmed of spending over Rs 74 crore on the building and the remaining Rs 109 crore has been approved and will be released in a phased manner and as per demands, an official confirmed.
