LAHORE: Punjab’s caretaker government has decided to withdraw half of the land allocated by Buzdar government for the mega 1,000-bed Lahore General Hospital-II project on Ferozepur Road near Arfa Karim Tower, to be executed at an estimated cost of Rs9,500 million, allegedly because of political as well as commercial motives.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf ‘s provincial government headed by the then chief minister Usman Buzdar had envisaged construction of five designated towers, on the pattern of Arfa Kareem Tower, on a 122-kanal piece of land that earlier housed the Kot Lakhpat Fruit and Vegetable Market.

The mega health project, that included a 600-bed general tower, 200-bed cardiac tower and a 200-bed blood diseases tower, was initially to be constructed at a cost of Rs7,759 million, as per the PC-I documents.

The Buzdar-government had proposed construction of the new hospital on a vertical pattern, instead of the traditional horizontal design.

Mega public health scheme envisaged to ease burden on General Hospital

However, as per official sources, the caretaker government has recently decided to withdraw half of the land allocated for the mega public health project and use it for commercial purposes.

The sources say the interim government took the decision after some ‘senior officers’ suggested it to revisit the ‘original plan’ of using the entire land for the public health purpose only.

An official privy to the development says the execution of LGH-II project was also stalled earlier when some bureaucrats had opposed the idea of handing over the precious land of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) free of cost to the health department.

However, he said as per the directions of the then chief minister (Usman Buzdar), the LDA had awarded the entire 122 kanal land to the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department for the project.

As per the plan, he said, the phase-wise construction of the towers and other blocks of the proposed hospital, including the parking plaza, was to complete by June of 2024.

The actual cost of the project, Rs7,552m, was approved in Feb 2022, and later revised to Rs8,455m in Sept 2022 and then again to Rs9,500m this year.

According to the plan, all the super specialties, medical and surgical equipment and other mandatory facilities were to be provided to the patients at the proposed hospital.

The prime purpose of constructing the new hospital was to ease the massive burden on the teaching hospital (LGH), where the rising number of patients was creating too many problems for the doctors as well as the administration.

As per the project’s PC-I, Rs4513m were allocated for the construction of main building of the LGH-II, Rs388m for imported items, Rs500m for the grid station, and Rs998m for medical equipment etc.

Later, the Parvez Elahi government had released Rs2,000m in the budget for fiscal year 2021-22 for the health scheme.

Since then, no more funds have been released so far, showing the present government’s lack of concern for the mega public interest project, apparently because it carries the “PTI-tag”, the official says.

He says the project was awarded to the Infrastructure Development Authority, Punjab (IDAP).

He laments that instead of following the proposed plan for the betterment of the poor patients, the interim government has not only withdrawn nearly 50 percent of the land marked for it, but also released no fund for the construction work of the project so far.

Apparently, this lack of concern, in a way, is ‘political victimisation’ of the project, the official source says.

LGH Chief Executive Prof Al-fareed Zafar confirmed to Dawn the development, saying he has already submitted a request to the caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, asking him to review the decision of withdrawing the 50pc of the land meant for the LGH-II project.

He says that he is going to meet the health secretary in the coming week to brief him about the new situation and get some support in saving the land proposed in the original plan.

In addition, he says the government has already allocated 2,800 kanal land for the expansion of the LGH in the city, and he wants to request the health secretary to start work there as soon as possible to ease the massive burden on the hospital.

Prof Zafar says the LGH is under a huge burden of patients like the Mayo Hospital, where the number has gone beyond its capacity.

He says the caretaker chief minister is also willing to establish some new buildings of the LGH and has given Rs5 to 6 billion for the purpose.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2023