Anantnag, June 28: The shifting of Maternity and Child Care Hospital (MCCH) is likely to get delayed further as Jammu and Kashmir Project Construction Corporation (JKPCC) is yet to implement the safety audit technical suggestions put forth by IIT Jammu in its audit report.
The IIT Jammu that was tasked to carry safety audit of the building submitted its report after eight months in January this year.
It suggested the retrofitting and jacketing of vital beams and columns of ground and first floor to strengthen the building further.
Both the floors were constructed by the Rehmat-e-Aalam Trust 16 years back.
However, the institute had not shared the technical details and design following which JKPCC sought those for the work to be tendered out.
The officials had then assured that the hospital would be handed over to GMC Anantnag authorities somewhere around July but now it is set to get delayed further.
“We received the technical details and design from IIT only a few days back and are yet to study it,” General Manager JKPCC Showkat Ahmad Dar told Greater Kashmir.
He said that they would soon go through it and see how they could execute the same.
“IIT Jammu’s delay in preparing safety audit report is the only the reason for unfinished work,” Dar said.
In February 2017, the government accorded sanction to taking over the building by the Health and Medical Education Department with all its assets and liabilities.
The government had earlier started the process of taking over in 2015.
The work on the Rs 12.12 crorehospital was stopped midway, mainly due to paucity of funds.
However, early last year, the former Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu sanctioned Rs 9 crore more for the project.
But the work again remained on halt due to the pending safety audit report.
The MCCH Anantnag caters to entire south Kashmir as well as Chenab and PirPanchal Valley.
The hospital is presently housed in an old, dilapidated and unsafe building in the congested Sherbagh locality of the old town.
It is only 40 bedded with an average of more than 40,000 patients in the Out-Patient Department (OPD) and about 7000 indoor patients on a monthly basis.
Further it always remains overcrowded with two to three patients sharing a single bed while the beds have even been put in the corridor.
Space crunch has for long been taking a toll on the healthcare of the patients and at times forcing the doctors to unnecessarily refer pregnant women and children to hospitals in Srinagar.
The hospital has also hogged the headlines for deaths of expecting mothers.