JICA-assisted project to improve healthcare facilities nearing completion in Chennai: PWD

A six-storey additional tower block at the Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital is among the new buildings under construction

Various projects to improve healthcare infrastructure across the State are nearing completion.

The Public Works Department (PWD) is carrying out works to construct new buildings for secondary and tertiary care hospitals, including in Chennai, with assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

According to the PWD, work has been almost completed to build a six-storey additional tower block at the Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, spread over nearly 2.68 lakh sq.ft.

Officials said the tower block, being built at a cost of ₹172.13 crore, would be a 468-bedded facility. It will have an emergency ward, intensive care units, a cath lab, dialysis units, and two exclusive floors for operation theatres such as modular and hybrid OTs.

The department has also provided a medical gas pipeline system and a manifold room for gas control panels. “We have also included accessibility features such as braille signage, ramps, and tactile tiles, in the building. The block will also have a sewage treatment plant,” said an official. The project will be completed in a month.

Similarly, work on a new block at the secondary care hospital in Velampalayam, Tiruppur, is nearing completion. Officials said the three-storey block would be spread over nearly 62,226 sq.ft. About 90% of the ₹36.43-crore project has been finished so far.

The 86-bedded block will have various medical units, including modular operation theatres, emergency wards, blood bank, and pay wards. Officials said this block would also have infrastructure to treat effluents and sewage. Besides the effluent treatment plant, capable of treating 8 kilolitre per day (kld), the sewage treatment plant of 50 kld capacity is also being constructed. A reverse osmosis water purification plant to treat 50 litres per hour will be installed.

Several other JICA-assisted healthcare projects, including additional blocks in tertiary and secondary care hospitals in Madurai, Tirunelveli, Salem, Coimbatore, and Avadi were inaugurated recently, officials added.