Bijbehara: Work on Trauma Hospital in Bijbehara town of Anantnag is yet to be completed more than six years after the construction began.
The hospital, along with 11 others, was sanctioned during the National Conference-Congress government in 2009 with an aim to effectively handle trauma cases especially road accident victims.
“All these 12 hospitals were located on the National Highway. With the completion of NH-44, some of these hospitals do not fall on the highway but nevertheless, they are meant to be trauma hospitals,” a source in the health department told Kashmir Reader.
While some of these hospitals like one in Qazigund area of Anantnag was completed and has functioning for more than 7 years now, the Bijbehara hospital is still incomplete.
The work of Truama hospital was allotted to Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation (JKPCC) in 2013 with an estimated cost of Rs 13.4 crore. The executing agency project was to complete the project within three years.
But more than six years have passed since then, the work is still pending. The delay is also hampering work in the nearby sub-District Hospital (SDH) of Bijbehara as some sections of the hospital have to be shifted to new building of the Trauma Hospital.
“Our building is unsafe, badly damaged by the floods of 2014. For repair and maintenance there was a proposal that some sections will be shifted to the new building for time being. But the building does not seem to get completed any time soon,” a source in SDH Bijbehara told Kashmir Reader.
JKPCC managing director in Anantnag Ghulam Mohammad Dar blamed shortage of funds which actually halted the work for more than three years.
“Moreover there was an issue of the approaching road to the hospital that needed to be sorted out with the locals,” he said adding that the work is going on in full swing now.
“It will not take more than two months to complete the project,” Dar said.

Suhail A Shah