Srinagar: Despite the under construction 500-bedded Mother Child Hospital (MCH) in Bemina in city outskirts has missed the two deadlines of its completion, no major work has been done in this project from last six months.
The Roads and Buildings department maintained that it is impossible for them to complete the hospital in the 2017 deadline.
Government had earlier fixed 2015 as deadline for the completion of 200-bedded maternity care Hospital which, however, was missed by the R&B Department.
April-May 2016 was fixed as another deadline for the completion of first three floors comprising of 200 beds. But the same was missed. Hence 2017 was set as the deadline for completion of the project.
The aim of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Syeed to establish the hospital was to reduce the pressure on Lal Ded and GB Pant hospitals.
The work on this hospital was started in 2013 and the work on the hospital is being executed by Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department.
The official sources in the R&B department told KNS that, no major work has been done on this project from last six months, as the contract committee in civil secretariat could not succeed to finalize the rate contract.
They said that the rate contract committee could not even sit for the finalization of the contract which resulted in non finalization of contract. The R&B department is solely responsible for such extra ordinary delay, sources said.
One of the concerned executive engineer said that to augment the construction for completion of the whole hospital, it took rate contract committee six months to finalize the tender which shall be floated afresh.
He further maintained that the calling for fresh tenders may take a considerable time therefore the completion of hospital may miss the 2017 deadline and get completed somewhere in 2018.
Sources believe that the completion of five hundred bedded hospital may take another four to five years as the authority concerned are not serious to bring such a facility of composite unit in the city.
Sources said that first it was decided to construct 200 bedded maternity hospital with the sole motive to release the pressure on the Lal Ded hospital, but the same could not be completed as in between the another idea was floated by the former chief minister to further extend the facility by transforming it to Mother child care hospital, a composite unit.
Sources further stated that had it been completed on time the pressure on Lal Ded maternity hospital would have reduced considerably and quality health care would have been available to the valley patients.
The hospital has 45 kanals of the land and is situated stone’s throw distance from Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Bemina, also called JVC Hospital, along Srinagar By-pass stretch which connects South Kashmir with North Kashmir.
The LD Hospital, Valley’s lone maternity hospital and GB Pant, which is the lone pediatric hospital, would ease the burden on these two hospitals.
These hospitals are receiving patients from North, South and Central Kashmir districts and are overburdened. However, if the MCH Bemina becomes operational, it would have a sigh of relief. 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.
The 700-bedded Lal Ded Hospital is already grappling with workload and staff shortage, thus affecting healthcare.
The Lal Ded and GB Panth 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, the hospital (MCH Bemina) would be convenient for mother and baby as well as their attendants.
The first three floors would accommodate 200 maternity beds while fourth and fifth floors are for pediatric care with 300 beds. (KNS)
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