KOHAT: The cost of the under-construction Hangu district hospital, which was approved in 2006 with an outlay of Rs250 million, has escalated to Rs650 million due to persistent law and order situation in the last one decade.

The Hangu tehsil got the status of district in 1996 and after that the tehsil headquarters hospital was upgraded to the district headquarters hospital in the same building.

The provincial government approved a new building for it in 2006 at a cost of Rs250 million on the main Hangu-Thall road outside the city, but due to poor law and order situation and repeated inquiries the project could not be completed in the stipulated time and its completion cost almost tripled.

However, the project is now near completion and the hospital building is expected to be handed over to the health department soon.

Started with Rs250m allocation the project faced delay due to poor security situation

Spread over 87 kanals the hospital besides a central building also has a two-storey separate gynae ward and hostels for the doctors, nurses and paramedics.

The hospital would also provide health care facilities to the people of Fata and Afghan nationals coming from across the border, which would reduce burden on hospitals of Kohat and Peshawar.

A senior health official, Luqman Gul, told Dawn on phone from Hangu that only the building would be new, but the facilities would remain the same as that allowed to the type D hospital, according to the 2002 PC-1. He said that the people would still have to go to Peshawar for MRI, CT scan, dialysis, treatment of burn injuries, etc.

He said that according to schedule the project should have been completed in 2012.

PROTEST AGAINST PESCO: The residents of Sorgul village blocked the Indus Highway and tried to ransack the Pesco offices after a man was electrocuted when a heavy electricity transmission line fell on him in a street on Tuesday.

The police said that one Sohail Khan was burnt to death when the 11,000 volts line fell in the street in a congested area. Later, the area people blocked the Indus Highway and chanted slogans against the Pesco staff. They said that they had been asking Pesco for years to replace the outdated line, but their demand fell on deaf ears.

They also tried to enter the offices of the SDO, Pesco, but timely arrival of police thwarted their move. When contacted, Jarma police SHO Mohammad Afzal claimed that action would be taken against the SDO, superintendent and lineman according to the law. However, no FIR has been lodged till filing of this report.

The crowd dispersed after Pesco officials came to the scene and promised to replace the old transmission line.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2015

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