SWABI: Work on the construction of Women and Children Hospital here has been stopped for the last one year due to paucity of funds, sources in the communication and works department told Dawn on Tuesday.

The construction of the 260-bed hospital had started in October 2021 after the then chief minister Mahmood Khan laid down its foundation stone, announcing that the project would be completed in two and a half years.

The hospital is being built on the site of Rural Health Centre Kunda, Chota Lahor, as locals didn’t give a separate piece of land for the project despite efforts of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmakers from the district.

The rural health centre was shifted to a portion of a government higher secondary school as the people opposed merging it into the hospital, fearing they would be deprived of a healthcare facility near their homes.

The sources said that the initial estimated cost of the project was Rs3.8 billion, which has now increased owing to delay in the release of funds as per the plan and rising prices of construction material.

The sources said price of iron had jumped from Rs110,000 per ton in 2021 to Rs224,000 per ton now, witnessing over 100 per cent hike. They added cement per bag cost Rs550 then as against Rs1,420 now, posting nearly 200 per cent increase.

The sources recalled that when the then health minister Syed Qasim Ali Shah along with minister for irrigation Aqibullah Khan, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser and former director general health Dr Shaukat Ali visited the project site in March 2024, health officials informed them that Rs236 million had been allocated for the project in the year but the amount wasn’t released due to feeble financial position of the provincial government.

The sources said that only 45 per cent work on the project had been completed, and considering the weak financial position of the provincial government its completion by June 2025 wasn’t possible.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that contractor has demanded increase in the project’s cost amid spiraling construction material costs during the last three and a half years.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2025