SUKKUR: The construction of Ghulam Mohammad Mahar Medical College (GMMMC) building in Sukkur could not be completed despite the lapse of six years due to a lack of interest on the part of the administration, Dawn has learnt.

In 2003 former chief minister of Sindh Ali Moham­mad Khan Mahar and former district nazim of Suk­kur (and now a provincial minister) Syed Nasir Huss­ain Shah got approved the establishment of the medical college to help male and female students get MBBS education nearer to their home towns instead of going to Karachi and other cities.

In this regard, 53 acres were allocated in 2012 in the locality of Sukkur bypass for the construction of the GMMMC. Funds were released to fulfil requi­re­ments of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) for registration of the college.

In the PC-1 the estimated construction cost was put at Rs1.992 billion and the project was to be completed within a period of three years. But it could not be completed even after the lapse of six years and as such the cost has now risen to Rs4.64bn due to inflation and increase in the cost of construction and other material.

Till now the construction work of a hostel for about 200 female students has been completed and made functional but due to low height of its wall there are apprehensions about safety and security of inmates because no barbed wire fence has been installed atop it.

There are also complaints of substandard material and services in the construction of the hostel’s sewerage system due to which inmates face problems after every few days and services of the district as well as the municipal administration are called to repair the underground sewerage lines. Sewage is removed through suction machine to clean the area.

According to GMMMC principal Prof Aftab Soo­mro, the scheme has now been taken over from the health department and handed over to the building department.

Presently this scheme is being worked on by two departments and despite the lapse of a period of four to five months, the building department has not started its work.

Prof Soomro told Dawn that about Rs500,000 per month was being paid under the head of rent of two hostels.

“We will move to the actual GMMMC building from present civil hospital building when the boys’ hostel, academic block and admin block were ready.”

He said that nowadays the batch No.16 was in making while male and female students of 11 batches who had completed their studies were now working at different hospitals.

The assistant engineer of the GMMMC project said there were 90 rooms in the girls’ hostel where about 270 students were residing while structure of boys’ hostel had been completed.

He said 30 per cent of its finishing work was completed. Likewise, he added, 70pc structure of the admin block, 65pc of the academic block and 70pc of other academic blocks had been completed. He hoped that the remaining work would be completed by June or July.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2019