The government on Wednesday informed the legislative assembly that the devastating floods of 2014 in Kashmir caused delay completion of construction work on the maternity-cum-childcare hospital in Bemina Srinagar.
In a written reply to a query raised by MLA from Batamaloo constituency Noor Muhammad Sheikh, the minister for health and medical education in his written reply informed the House that the funds for construction of the hospital have been released by the government of India, but the “normal” work on the project was restarted after more than a year post-floods.”
“The law and order situation during 2016 forced the labour class to leave the valley which halted the construction work on the hospital,” the minister said.
He said that funds released during that year remained unutilised and were then revalidated through the finance department for their utilisation during 2017-18.
“Funds have been approved by the government of India under PM’s development programme for the current financial year which will be released to the concerned HoD after sanction is received from the finance department,” the minister said.
He said that the maternity hospital is likely to be completed during 2018-19 while as children’s hospital will be completed during 2019-20, “subject to the availability of funds.”