Srinagar, Sep 8: The 500-bedded Paediatric hospital at Bemina area here is likely to be commissioned in November-December this year.
The mega project has been awaiting its completion for the past many years and has already missed three consecutive deadlines in the past seven years.
Chief Engineer Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department –the executing agency of the project, ShokwatJeelaniPandit informed that the hospital will be commissioned by November or December this year.
“We are hopeful to complete the project by the end of this year,” he said.
Notably, the upcoming hospital was earlier designated as a 200-bedded Mother and Childcare Institute. However, it was later declared to be established as a full-fledged paediatric hospital with 500 bed capacity in 2019.
The work on the hospital was initially started in 2013 but the former Chief Minister, Late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in October 2015, gave it an extension and laid the foundation stone for 500-bedded Mother-Child Hospital.
In 2019, the government accorded sanction to conversion of the 200-bedded Maternity Hospital and the 300 bedded Pediatric Hospital at Bemina, Srinagar into a full-fledged 500-bedded Children’s Hospital. “There was no issue of delay in completion or slow pace of work. There were other several issues due to which the work on the hospital was not completed yet,” Pandit said.
Pertinently, the September-2014 floods had caused damage to the under-construction building of the upcoming hospital.
The project was earlier only a 200-bedded hospital which later got revised as a 500-bedded hospital. “The project did not face any problems of cost escalation but the main problem was that the project was earlier only 200-bedded but got revised as 500-bedded due to which it took some time for its completion,” he said.
The project cost of the upcoming hospital is Rs 116 crore, chief engineer R&B department said.
As already reported, the R&B department has missed three deadlines for its completion till date. First deadline was missed in 2014, second in 2017 and third in 2018.
Once the hospital becomes operational, it is expected to ease the burden on the main referral institution GB Pant Hospital which remains overcrowded and overburdened due to huge patient rush.