Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Sept 10: Funds scarcity has slowed down the construction process of 500-bedded Mother Child Hospital (MCH) in Bemina area on the outskirts of Srinagar and it is likely to miss third deadline.
An official of Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department said it is impossible for them to complete the hospital building this year as the project was altered several times. “We will never meet 2017 deadline as the project has changed a lot. In addition, the pace of work depends on the flow of funds. Nearly Rs. 18 crores have not been received yet,” he said.
The official said initially the hospital was proposed to be 200-bedded with only maternity care and the work was started during 2013 when National Conference-led Government was in power. However, former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on October 17, 2015 gave it an extension and laid the foundation stone for 500 bedded Mother Child Hospital.
The Government had earlier fixed 2015 as the deadline for the completion of 200-bedded maternity care Hospital, which, however, was missed by the R&B Department, the official said, adding that later April-May 2016 was fixed as another deadline for the completion of first three floors comprising of 200 beds. However, the same was missed. Hence, 2017 was set as the deadline for completion of the project.
“The reason for missing 2015 deadline was floods. “We would have achieved the target but the flood affected our work. Later, we were told that we have to construct two more floors,” the R&B officials said when asked why they missed the deadline.
R&B Chief Engineer, Abdul Hamid Sheikh when contacted said the construction work is in full swing and the hospital would be completed around March or April next year. “Nearly 200 workers are involved in the construction work and the work is in full swing. We are in the finishing stage of the work and if funds are released on time the hospital will be ready by the end of the financial year,” he said.
The officials at Lal Ded Hospital, Valley’s lone maternity hospital and GB Pant, which is a lone pediatric hospital, said once the MCH Hospital would be functional it would ease the burden on these two hospitals. “We are receiving patients from North, South and Central Kashmir districts and are overburdened.
“However, if the MCH Bemina becomes operational, we will have a sigh of relief. At least the patients from North Kashmir districts as well as Budgam would prefer the new hospital as it is more convenient for them in terms of distance,” said an official at Lal Ded Hospital. The 700-bedded Lal Ded Hospital is already grappling with workload and staff shortage, thus affecting health care. The overload could be gauged by the fact that there were around 23,000 deliveries in the hospital in 2014 as per a report.
The Lal Ded and GB Pant hospitals are nearly three kilometers away from each other and as a result, the patients, as well as their attendants, face lot of inconvenience. “However, this hospital (MCH Bemina) would be convenient for both mother and baby as well as their attendants,” said another official.
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