THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Following the hue and cry over the human rights violations meted out to the mentally-ill patients and the poor condition of the Government Mental Health Centre at Peroorkada, the state government has finally granted the administrative sanction for a Rs 90-crore project for the development of the hospital.
If everything goes to plan, the project will take off within six months, said official sources. TNIE had done a slew of stories exposing the human rights violations taking place at the hospital. The decision comes in the wake of the intervention from the High Court, the Rights bodies of the state and the Centre.
The government has roped in HITES (HLL Infratech Services Ltd) as the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for implementing the project which is being funded by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).
Earlier, the government had engaged KITCO Ltd to prepare a master plan for the development of the hospital, but unfortunately, the `100-crore project remained a non-starter owing to apathy on the part of the authorities. The state government had to then scrap the project and come up with a new one following pressure from legal bodies against the ill management of the hospital which is one of the oldest and most reputed hospitals for psychiatry in the country.
An official associated with the project said the HITES will prepare the detailed project report (DPR) for the project. A behavioural ICU, an OP block, and the IP block beautification on the campus are some of the important features of the project.
“This is one of the priority projects of the government and there will not be any delay in implementing it. We will submit the DPR within two months and invite the tenders immediately after getting the technical sanction from KIIFB. We expect to get the KIIFB nod within two months after submission,” said