The much-awaited construction of the campus of Dr. Radhakrishnan Govt Medical College near Thai village on the Hamirpur-Nadaun road began on Saturday.
Though the ground-breaking ceremony is yet to be performed, the CPWD has installed the marking flags on the proposed site. The Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had laid the foundation stone of a 250-bed hospital of the medical college in the presence of Union Health Minister JP Nadda and Anurag Thakur, then MP, in June 2018.
The building is slated to come up at a cost of Rs 206 crore while a sum of Rs 1.91 crore will be spent on the construction of a residential block. The college was one of the three medical colleges announced in 2014 by the UPA government, besides in Chamba and Nahan. The government college here started in 2018 in a government hospital building. However, it is now facing accommodation problems, following the increase in staff and intake seats of the college from 100 to 120.
Meanwhile, Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Ltd was awarded the tender to execute the construction of the campus. The CPWD had directed the company to start the work immediately vide its letter dated September 11. Dr. Anil Chauhan, principal of the medical college, said the construction work had been awarded by the CPWD to the construction company and it was expected that it would be completed in the given time period.
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, MLA, Nadaun, alleged that the college was declared by the Congress government in 2014 but the BJP leadership delayed the construction of the campus due to political reasons. “Had BJP leaders been worried about public welfare, the campus would have been constructed by now,” he added. — OC
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