Hyderabad, Jan 31 (IANS) Hyderabad’s over 100-year-old Osmania General Hospital began a new phase of its journey with the foundation stone for its new building being laid on Friday.
Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy laid the foundation for the 2,000-bedded facility with 32 lakh square feet built-up area that will come up in an area of 26 acres at Goshamahal, about three kilometres from the existing building of Osmania Hospital near the Musi River.
He performed Bhoomi Puja for the new hospital building at Goshamahal Police Stadium in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha, Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and top officials.
The Chief Minister inspected the designs of the new building, which is estimated to cost Rs 2,700 crore and will meet a long-pending demand of people and the hospital staff.
The present building of Osmania Hospital is in a dilapidated condition and there have been demands for several years to construct a new building.
The Chief Minister promised that the new facility would be world-class and that it would give a big boost to public healthcare in Hyderabad and Telangana.
Health Minister Narasimha termed it a historic day and said the new building would meet the 30-year-old demand. He mentioned that Osmania Hospital is one of the most famous hospitals in the country.
The minister said the process for the new building was completed in six months to lay the foundation. The government plans to complete construction of the entire building in two years.
The new complex has been designed keeping in view the requirements of the next 100 years. The number of doctors will increase by 20 per cent once the new building is completed.
The scientifically designed building, with state-of-the-art facilities, would comprise 29 major and 12 minor operation theatres, with facilities for robotic surgery and a dedicated transplant theatre.
The Medical Education and Training wing would be expanded, with 30 departments, including eight new emerging super-specialty disciplines. The building would house a new academic block with nursing, dental, and physiotherapy colleges.
The Congress government said that after a decade of negligence, the Telangana government will be making such a huge investment into public health.
The new hospital building design has separate provisions for a power substation, fire station, bio and non-bio waste management, and STP.
According to the Chief Minister’s Office, the highest priority has been given to designing the super-modern hospital to ensure the comfort and needs of patients, and the attending families and visitors.
Conceived after the Musi floods of 1908, the Osmania Hospital was built by Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad State and named after him.
Designed by British architect Vincent Jerome Esch and Nawab Khan Bahadur Mirza Akbar Baig in the Indo-Sarcenic style, it was completed in 1919. Heritage experts say the domes of Osmania Hospital added to Hyderabad’s charms.
Osmania Hospital has been host to many a prominent medical conference, and research initiatives over the decades.
It used to serve over 3,000 outpatients and 1,200 inpatients daily, and the staff would perform 100 to 150 major surgeries and several hundred minor procedures daily, catering to a huge number of patients from different parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The existing space of 7.5 lakh square feet was proving insufficient for the growing needs of the people. The demands to demolish the existing structure and build a new complex met with stiff resistance from heritage lovers and concerned citizens.
As several legal cases have been pending since 2015, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy took the decision to preserve the existing building as a heritage structure and build a new complex at another location to cater to the healthcare needs of the people.
–IANS
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