LAHORE, Jan 11: Delay in the construction of the Institute of Child Health and Children’s Hospital (ICH&CH) has increased its estimated cost as it needs around Rs1 billion more for completion.

This was stated by ICH&CH project director Prof Sajid Maqbool while giving a briefing on the project’s pace of work to the Punjab health minister here on Friday.

Prof Maqbool said the project’s estimated cost increased mainly due to delay in the initiation of the project. At present, he said, the construction work had completed only on 650,000 square feet out of total 1.4 million square feet covered area. He said the construction of an indoor block, an operation theatre block and other departments was still to be executed.

It was learnt that the project had some Rs300 million at its disposal but the planning and development board was not giving approval on technical grounds to start spending the money. Sources claimed that the board was of the view that the project could not be completed with Rs300 million and it would again be stopped in the middle.

It was also learnt that health secretary Hasan Waseem Afzal asked the ICH&CH project director to prepare a new working paper mentioning the latest cost and remaining construction work.

Later, health minister Prof Mahmood Ahmad Chaudhry assured the project management that all hardships and hindrances would be removed to accelerate the pace of construction work for the earliest completion of the project.

He said the available funds should be utilized while the health department would work to inject more funds into the project.

The minister also asked for the constitution of a three-member committee comprising deputy project director, accounts officer and an engineer to assist the project director and coordinate with different provincial departments to complete the project.

He hoped that the Children’s Hospital would provide all modern health facilities to children under one roof according to the international standards.