CUTTACK: The SCB Medical College and Hospital will soon have a four-lane road stretching to its campus. The slums and shops along Taladanda Canal road will be evicted to facilitate road expansion to the premier government-run hospital of the State.A decision to this effect has been taken during a c0ordination meeting chaired by Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), Central Range, Anil Kumar Samal with officials of the district administration, Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and all concerned line departments for expansion of SCBMH here on Monday.
While departmental officials concerned have been directed to shift the 33/11 KVA electrical substation, electric poles, a PHEO pump house and telephone cables from Taladanda canal road, authorities of CMC and district administration have been instructed to conduct a joint survey and enumeration of slum dwellers and shops and makeshift vendors on the stretch within a week. Tender for construction of the four-lane road has already been floated and the work will be commenced by January 15, informed Samal.
After a thorough discussion, a plan for relocation of the evicted slum dwellers was chalked out in the meeting. As per the decision, an area of about eight acres which has been reclaimed from the process of dredging of Mahanadi river on Jagatpur side will be developed with basic facilities like road, drinking water, electricity, toilets etc. where the evicted slum dwellers will be rehabilitated.
Following the recent announcement of `100 crore package by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for modernisation and revamping of the premier Government-run medical and converting it into a state-of-the-art 3,000-bed integrated hospital to provide AIIMS Plus standard healthcare services, steps are being taken on priority basis for improvement of SCBMCH.If everything goes as per plan, the SCB campus will be expanded with merger of about 40 acres of land to its existing 87-acre campus.