Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 17: The ill-planned and politically motivated maternity hospital coming up at Gandhi Nagar has missed the deadline for its completion. This health institution, however, will pose many grave issues for the administration as various vital aspects and necessary clearances were completely ignored in order to further the political interests.
This 200 bedded maternity hospital was conceived because the main maternity hospital housed in the SMGS Hospital Complex always remains overcrowded and accordingly the project was taken up with the then Union Government, which agreed to provide funds not only for this hospital but also for similar health institution in Srinagar.
The work on the hospital was started in the year 2012-13 by the J&K Housing Board but finally it landed into the basket of Roads and Buildings Department after a melee among three contenders—JKPCC, Housing Board and Chief Engineer, R&B Jammu. The project was to be completed by the end of 2014-15 financial year but it has missed the deadline mainly because of slow funding from the Union Government and lack of follow up exercise from the concerned authorities of the J&K Government’s Health Department.
According to the information available with EXCELSIOR, work to the tune of Rs 40 crore has been completed against Rs 43 crore earmarked for the civil works but an amount of only Rs 15 crore has been released till date. On the other hand, exercise to purchase equipment worth Rs 7 crore has yet not been set into motion for want of completion of the building in all respects.
“If funds are released then the project would be completed by ending December this year”, official sources said.
On the other hand, several questions have come to the fore vis-à-vis viability of the project keeping in view the fact that many crucial aspects and necessary clearances have been completely ignored right from the stage of conception of the project to its execution.
The 200 bedded hospital has come up on inadequate space of five kanals and 15 marlas, which otherwise is not suffice for the construction of Community Health Center and Sub-District Hospital, sources said while disclosing that 40 bedded CHC Basohli has come up on 52 kanals and 2 marlas. Similarly, CHC Khour has 12 kanals and 10 marlas of land and CHC Chenani has 21 kanals of land.
“This is really a matter of serious concern as construction of many hospitals either in urban areas or in the rural areas has not been taken up on such a meager space as this 200 bedded hospital”, they said, adding “since political interests were involved in the construction of this hospital this crucial aspect was completely ignored despite the fact that adequate land was available in other parts of Jammu for the construction of such level of hospital”.
Stating that many problems would emerge following completion of the project, sources said that the lanes around existing Gandhi Nagar Hospital are not wide enough even to cater the need of the existing vehicular traffic and with another hospital of such a huge magnitude coming up in vicinity the traffic movement on these lanes is going to worsen. Moreover, the space kept for parking in the basement of the building would not be suffice to accommodate the vehicles of the attendants and staff of the hospital.
“This building is also the testimony of Government departments violating the building bye-laws as work was started without obtaining necessary No Objection Certificates from all the concerned quarters because of political interventions”, sources said, adding “nobody knows whether all the concerned departments have given permission to the building of such a magnitude. Moreover, work on the project was started much before getting soil testing report”.
“God forbid but in case of any emergency there would be much difficulties for timely evacuation of patients and staff from both the hospitals as entire area is crammed”, sources said. These issues of vital importance were also pointed out by none else than the monitoring cell of the Chief Minister when the construction was at initial stage but they were not taken seriously, sources regretted.
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