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| Health Deptt in no hurry to commission Covid hospital in Kashmir | | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, May 17: Construction of a COVID-19 dedicated hospital by the Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) has been taken up on war footing basis by the concerned agency in the Jammu region, but in Kashmir the people at helm seem to be in no hurry in this regard.
The divisional administration of Kashmir had identified a piece of land at Reshipora in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district for the construction of COVID-19 hospital and the DRDO had in fact started the process for the same. The authorities felled dozens of trees for the construction of hospital and it was expected that the work would be started soon, but that was not to be.
The authorities at the last moment of time decided to shift the COVID-19 hospital out of the Budgam district and instead chose Khonmoh area for the construction of this dedicated hospital. The people at helm have been claiming that the soil at Reshipora in Budgam was marshy and the construction would not be feasible.
Sources told Early Times that the authorities should have first conducted the soil test and only then they should have felled trees for the construction purpose. They said the people at helm have caused immense damage to the green cover in the Reshipora area by cutting down trees without any proper planning. It would be in place to mention that Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha visited the COVID-19 hospital site at Bhagwati Nagar on Sunday (May 16) and took stock of the construction work. The construction work at the hospital is going on at full swing and it is all set to be commissioned on May 25. The hospital would have 125 ICU beds and 375 oxygen beds.
“The COVID-19 hospital at Jammu would be commissioned well on time, but as far as the hospital in Kashmir is concerned it is quite unlikely that the same would be commissioned in the next one month or so. It is because of the confusion that is prevalent among the officers of civil administration and health department,” said sources.
The confusion among the officers of the civil administration and health department was visible today as Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Mohammad Aijaz Asad and Director Health Services Kashmir; Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Rather gave conflicting dates about the commissioning of the hospital. While the DC Srinagar claimed that the hospital would be made functional by May 30 the Director Health Services Kashmir said that the work on construction of hospital would be completed in first week of June.
The delay in the same can also gauged by the fact that the Public Health Engineering (PHE) has set a 15 day deadline for the construction of tube well at the hospital site. The department issued the notice on May 16 in the local newspapers in this regard while setting the deadline of 15 days for the completion of construction work of the tube well.
The work has been titled as construction of 200 mm dia ODEX/DTH production tube well for the proposed 500 bedded COVID-19 hospital by DRDO in Industrial Estate Khonmoh, Srinagar. The total estimated cost of the work is Rs. 28.15 lakhs with Rs. 84,500 being the performance security and the construction work has to be completed under the Disaster Management programme.
Although the COVID-19 hospital at Jammu would be a pre-fabricated structure the same at Khonmoh would be housed in a permanent building. This arrangement too would lead to delay in the commissioning of the hospital in Kashmir and the people at helm can only provide an answer to the same. |
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