It is planned to mobilise Rs. 60 crore from various industries
An exercise has been launched to mop up Rs.60 crore from various industries under the corporate social responsibility to make Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences operational.
After completion of its first phase by spending Rs.55 crore, the buildings at Adarshnagar on the site alienated to the Health Department from the erstwhile Dairy Farm, the project hit a roadblock for want of funds to buy equipment.
Eight lakh square feet of built-up area was created five years ago. The imposing building now exists in part of 110 acres allotted to VIMS, proposed to be developed on the lines of Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad.
“It suffered labour pain for five long years. Now we want to make it operational by asking the industries like HPCL, RINL, NTPC, and Visakhapatnam Port to allot CSR funds to start it with 200 beds as soon as possible,” an official of AP Medical Service and Infrastructure Development Corporation told The Hindu.
The idea to put pressure on the industries was mooted early this month during a review meeting held after a visit to VIMS by Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas and Minister for Panchayati Raj Ch. Ayanna Patrudu.
Originally, VIMS, which was sanctioned in 2005 with 15 blocks at an estimated cost of Rs.209 crore should have been made operational with 450 beds and six blocks by mid-2006. Owing to resource crunch, at one point of time, the Andhra Pradesh government (before bifurcation) set up a committee headed by retired Principal Secretary, Health, G. Kumaraswamy Reddy to find ways and means to make the ambitious project operational. The committee’s recommendation to start it by involving BOT operators and collect user charges had to be dropped midway-through following a ruckus created by opposition parties.
Health city plan
VIMS is a part of a project to develop the area from Adarshnagar to Pineapple Colony and Mudasarlova into a Health City. CARE, Apollo and other corporate hospitals have acquired lands in the area to set up multi-speciality hospitals, which are at various stages of construction.