The government has sanctioned Rs.7.4 crore for the second stage construction of a multi-storeyed building for the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology (RIO), which is coming up right opposite to the present hospital building, Devaswom Minister and local MLA V.S. Sivakumar has said.
A cellar floor and ground floor have already been completed in the new building in the first stage. The government had earlier allocated Rs.1.64 crore in the current budget for the second stage of the building. However, more funds were allocated so that the building could be completed and the facilities opened for the public without delay, Mr. Sivakumar said.
RIO, where hundreds of patients come on a daily basis from within and outside the State, is currently facing an acute shortage of space.
The new multi-storeyed building will have another four floors built in the second phase of the construction. These will house the laboratories of the biochemistry, physiology, microbiology, pathology and epidemiology departments, speciality centres, operation theatre, consulting rooms for doctors, etc.
