LAHORE: A chunk of 44 kanal land has been identified behind Lorry Adda (Badamai Bagh) for constructing a new building of the Lady Willingdon Hospital.

“There were some technical objections to the identified land, we are trying to remove them before sending a proposal to the Punjab government. To date, the site is almost final,” a senior official of the Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (Tepa) told Dawn on Tuesday.

The doctors’ community opposes the proposed relocation and demolition of hospital building of the British era, however, the official termed it vital for making view of the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort more visible or clearer.

According to plan, the project has been estimated to cost Rs2,816 million and the new building of the infirmary will have 300 beds, 16 private rooms, eight operating theatres, eight gyne wards, eight ICUs, four children wards and multi-storey residences for doctors and nurses.

The foundation stone of the Lady Willingdon Hospital, one of the largest gynecology facilities in the provincial metropolis, was laid in 1933 by Col (retired) SN Hayees who was also the first medical superintendent of the health facility.

Sir Geoffrey Fritzharvey de’Montmorency, the then Punjab governor, had founded the de’Montmorency College of Dentistry, located on the Fort Road, in 1929 and the Punjab Dental Hospital started functioning there in April, 1930.

Demolished: Lahore Development Authority’s (LDA’s) estate management directorate demolished on Tuesday illegal structures in various housing schemes.

It demolished structures at plots reserved for public utilities besides dismantling boundary wall on a mosque site in Khayaban-e-Zahra. It removed encroachments and illegal constructions at mortgaged plots of Nawab Town.

The site office established in graveyard of Jafar Town was also demolished. The LDA sealed the office of Audit and Accounts Housing Society, phase-I, for the non-execution of transfer and mortgaged deeds.

In other operations carried out by the staff of the LDA’s commercialisation and enforcement directorates, 52 shops at 14 plots of Quaid-i-Azam Town were sealed for non-payment of commercialisation fees and illegal commercial activities.

The town administrations removed encroachments on Bund Road, Kala Khatai Road, Chah Miran, Shadipura, Mughalpura, Daroghawala, Sukh Nehr, Guru Mangat Road, Main Market (Gulberg), Peeco Road, Barkat Market, Faisal Town, Garhi Shahu, Karim Park, Aftab Chowk, Hall Road, Raiwind Road and Link Model Town Road.