HYDERABAD: A decade after the foundation stone was laid for a 100-bed ESI Super Specialty Hospital at Seetharambagh in Goshamahal amid much fanfare, not a brick has been laid at the project site.
In response to a recent RTI query, the Telangana ESI Corporation revealed that neither approval nor sanction was granted, nor was land allotted by the ESIC headquarters for the construction of the new hospital.
It may be recalled that on November 28, 2015, the then Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya had laid the foundation stone for the hospital as part of a plan to upgrade facilities to cater to the growing number of beneficiaries. The proposed hospital was envisaged to cover 12 ESI dispensaries in the Goshamahal area and serve over one lakh insured persons (IPs) and 5.32 lakh beneficiaries.
According to an official release by the ESIC, the corporation had proposed to construct a state-of-the-art hospital on three acres of available land at the existing dispensary in Goshamahal, equipped with modern amenities to provide indoor, outpatient, emergency and diagnostic services.
However, 10 years after the foundation stone was laid, there is no sign of the hospital, and patients continue to receive treatment at the old dispensary.
A senior ESIC official told TNIE that no approval for the construction was ever granted by the ESIC headquarters.
While the fate of the Goshamahal hospital hangs in the balance, the Central government has recently announced another ESIC hospital within the GHMC limits.
On December 16, Union minister G Kishan Reddy announced that the Centre had approved the construction of a 100-bed ESIC hospital at Raikunta village in Shamshabad to cater to over 1.3 lakh ESI-insured workers in Rangareddy district. He added that approval for the land acquisition worth `16.125 crore was granted at the 197th ESIC meeting held on December 11.
ESI Hospital Development Committee member Galibe Vishal, speaking to TNIE, said, “It is beyond comprehension that the ESIC has failed to undertake the construction of a hospital whose foundation stone was laid a decade ago. We demand that the corporation first complete the Goshamahal hospital before taking up a new one at Shamshabad.”