ROURKELA: With land scarcity seriously hampering expansion of the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH), there is an increased demand for shifting the city’s major health facility to a nearby spacious location.
Amid possibility of the 400-bed RGH getting upgraded to a government medical college and hospital (MCH) in the near future, shifting it to a new spacious campus seems inevitable.
Those advocating for shifting RGH opine that the state government must immediately take back at least 25 acre from the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) for the purpose. They suggest to relocate the hospital to a large parcel of vacant land inside the RSP boundary near Gariatola and Sheetapada slums along Hanuman Vatika bypass road. The new location would be hardly 500 metre from the existing RGH campus.
Senior BJP leader Ramesh Agarwal said a few months ago, he had written to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi to shift RGH to a new location and declare Rourkela as a separate health district in the larger interest of the people of the region. Due to space constraint, the existing RGH campus has been left with little scope for expansion, he said.
The RGH, which once had more than 40 acre of land, has now been left with barely 15 acre after around 10 acre was alienated for construction of the Hanuman Vatika temple complex in 1991. Subsequently in 2009, around 15 acre was parted for construction of the privately-run Hi-Tech MCH.
Amid acute space shortage, the Odisha Bridge and Construction Corporation Ltd had prepared a vertical expansion plan for construction of a spacious G+6 building on a vacant patch of land to bring all major medical facilities under a single roof. However, the proposal is hanging fire for many years.
In May, the state government had approved around `627 crore for expansion and upgradation of the RGH. Sources said this fund may remain unutilised in absence of adequate land.
Incidentally, restructuring of Sundargarh into two new Lok Sabha constituencies looks imperative before the 2029 general elections. There is also a possibility of bifurcation of Sundargarh revenue district. In the event of Rourkela becoming a new revenue district, RGH would have to be upgraded into a medical college and hospital.