KARACHI, Dec 16: The Sindh government will provide approximately Rs866 million to the City District Government Karachi over three years in order to complete construction of a stalled 400-bed hospital project in Gulshan-i-Iqbal town, according to sources in the provincial health department.
Dawn has learnt that the details of financing and the mode of execution of the project (the Nasir Hussain Shaheed Hospital) were finalized at a meeting of the technical committee of the Sindh government’s planning and development department recently.
The meeting also recommended that a modified PC-1 pertaining to the project, already incorporated in the annual development programme of the government, be tabled before the Provincial Development Working Party, which is likely to meet in the last week of December.
Aimed at facilitating patients from Gulshan-i-Iqbal town and its surrounding areas, the hospital project was launched in 2006, to replace an ongoing library complex project initiated in 2004 by the then city government.
A private staffer at the three-acre site near NIPA Chowrangi told Dawn that work had come to a halt on the library as the city government was unable to make payments to the contractors for the work already completed. A member of the contractor’s office said that work began on the building with a view to constructing a library, but at a later stage they were asked to change objectives. He added that no work has taken place at the site for the last 18 months.
A CDGK Works and Services department official also confirmed this, saying work could not continue as planned due to the shortage of funds.
A Sindh health department official said the hospital would be ready by 2010, provided that work on the ground is reinitiated by the first quarter of 2009.
A city government document says the plot was initially intended to be a 100-bed hospital, but was reallocated as a women’s library as the matter became politicised. Construction began accordingly.
Due to the delay in construction, as well as the modifications, the total cost of the project had to be repeatedly re-estimated.
The cost was about Rs500 million for 350 beds in 2006, ballooning up to Rs600 million later, according to a source. At last count, the cost has been projected as Rs866.12 million, including construction and the provision of medical equipment for 400 beds.The new hospital will have a general OPD ward, as well as consulting clinics, a radiology laboratory, diagnostic laboratories, a blood bank, and a neurology department equipped with an MRI machine and CT scanner. It will also have surgical and medical departments, and dialysis, neonatal and emergency units, among other sections and facilities.
Dawn has learnt that the CDGK asked the Sindh government for a sum of Rs101.04 million during the ongoing financial year, against the Rs1 million token allocation in its ADP of 2008-09, Rs213 million for 2009-10, and Rs552.18 million for 2010-11.
The additional secretary (development) of the Sindh Health department, Dr Srichand Ochani, told Dawn that the CDGK project had been incorporated in the provincial development programme. It has now been decided that the scope of the project will be taken up at the relevant forum, with a master plan/modular approach being used.
The Sindh government plans to provide Rs448.303 million in capital, and Rs417.91 million on the revenue side over three years for the proposed project, the secretary added.
He mentioned, however, that representatives of the CDGK are now required to furnish a modified PC-1 at the earliest opportunity. The city government, which will execute the remaining work on the project and run the hospital when it is constructed, will have to bear the cost of construction and other costs incurred so far (estimated at Rs30 million).
The CDGK executive engineer concerned, Tariq Rafi, said the project had been conceived as a ground+four health facility, but will now be a ground+two structure in the first phase. He said he hopes work on the hospital recommences shortly.