Nims-Bibinagar still a far cry

Though serious efforts are on to complete the pending works on the Bibinagar branch of Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims), the prestigious hospital is far from completion.

Thanks to logistical and infrastructural problems arising out of the ongoing works, Nims-Bibinagar could be out of bounds for patients from the districts of Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Medak and Warangal.

To overcome this logjam, the State government has formed a committee of senior engineers drawn from different departments. It has also released Rs. 62 crore recently for the pending works.

“It is difficult to open Bibinagar hospital right away due to infrastructural inadequacies,” Director, Nims, Dr. L. Narendranath, pointed out. He said they were seeking the expertise of senior engineers to prepare a timeframe for completion of the balance work so that the facility is commissioned at the earliest.

An amount of Rs. 75 crore has been spent on the hospital till now.

While the outer structure is in place, work on flooring, electricity lines, water connections and interior pipelines to supply medical gases is hanging fire. Beds and other paraphernalia are to be fixed too.

Report on works

Apart from assisting the Nims management in releasing timely payments for the works, the committee of engineers is expected to submit a detailed report on the pending works by this month-end.

Foundation for the Bibinagar hospital, works of which are being executed by Nagarjuna Construction Company, was laid in 2009 by then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Initially, the government had released Rs. 40 crore for the hospital work.