NEW DELHI: The Delhi government is constructing two mohalla clinics inside portable shipping containers in the Shakurbasti area. The authorities plan to replicate the idea in dense cluster colonies where space constraints pose a challenge in creating health infrastructure in a dedicated buildings.
The Delhi government opted for the portable clinics in order to tide over the issues of land posed by DDA and civic bodies, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said. “Land is a subject that comes under the Centre. Politics has been happening with the construction of mohalla clinics. The DDA had promised in the Delhi High Court that it would give land for mohalla clinics but it did not given us anything for even a single mohalla clinic,” Jain told media persons. “The municipal corporations have also been troubling us. What we did was that we took a shipping container and prepared a readymade mohalla clinic.”
Jain had earlier visited the sites of the two mohalla clinics being constructed in giant containers in Shakurbasti. “These Clinics have been set up in portable containers. Such Clinics are easy to set up & transport in Cluster areas like Jhuggi-Bastis & narrow streets where healthcare infrastructure is less accessible,” he tweeted.The container-clinics would be fully air-conditioned.
Jain said these portable clinics are being made by a company as part of its CSR activity. Mohalla clinics were also made inside porta cabins at some places. “These are 100 per cent transferable, and can be installed wherever there is space. At present, we have one sample. The cost of these will be similar to the porta cabins,” he said, adding these will be a better option since they can made in bulk in a factory, can be installed within no time and are made of sturdy material.