Soon, Chennai may get another government medical college and hospital with the Public Works Department (PWD) all set to resume work on the project at Omandurar Estate on Wallajah Road after a gap of nearly two years.
What was once planned as work space for IAS officers and Secretariat staff members on the Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex, may soon be transformed into a 580-bed hospital and a medical college.
The PWD is awaiting environment clearance from the State-level Environment Impact Authority (EIA) to resume work on the Rs. 200-crore project.
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A board displaying project details has now come up at the site after a government order sanctioning funds of Rs. 123 crore was issued recently to complete construction of the seven tower blocks proposed on the site. Spread over 8 lakh sq.ft., they stand at various stages of incompletion.
Only the ground floors of the first two towers had been constructed when work was stopped and the present government proposed to convert the complex into a college-cum-hospital. Construction of a few floors had been completed in other towers.
The medical college with a proposed intake of 100 students will come up in the first two towers on the site now referred to as ‘B’ block.
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While the third and fourth towers will house the students’ hostel and staff quarters, the fifth, sixth and seventh towers have been allotted for the hospital.
Officials of the PWD said each tower would have seven floors and be interconnected with corridors. “We also plan to provide a ramp for patients’ convenience. We have already spent Rs. 76 crore on the project. We need to modify the interiors of the structures to suit a hospital according to the norms of Medical Council of India and National Green Tribunal,” said an official.
The project estimate was reduced by Rs. 79 crore after the department dropped a beautification design for the structures.
The blocks housing the medical college will be modelled on a green design as will be the ‘A’ block, which will house a multi-super specialty hospital. Patients’ attendants and students may find a place to relax in the roof garden on the complex.
An environment management plan has been submitted to the State-level EIA detailing the proposed method for disposing bio-medical waste. The college-cum-hospital will have two effluent treatment plants with a capacity to treat 50 kilolitres per day (kld) and one sewage treatment plantwith a capacity of 350 kld.
“We expect to get environment clearance to resume the project in one or two weeks. We plan to complete the work in a year and hand it over to the health and family welfare department,” the official said.
The Pune-based company Vascon Engineering Private Limited has been engaged to complete the project.