The Jharkhand High Court has directed the State Government to increase the strength of Super Speciality Sadar Hospital up to 500 beds by December 2018.
Hearing a Public Interest litigation (PIl) seeking judicial intervention for making the hospital functional, a division bench of Chief Justice PK Mohanty and Justice Ananda Sen disposed of the case on Thursday, directing all concerned departments to coordinate with each other for putting it on the ground.
The multi-storeyed, swanky structure which was mooted as a super-speciality wing of Ranchi Sadar Hospital has been lying idle since 2012 after it got completed.
“The Court passed the direction after the State Government in its affidavit furnished an undertaking in the court that the Super Specialty Sadar Hospital will be made functional with 200 beds in it by July 2017,” said petitioner’s advocate Saurabh Arun. The court directed the State to increase the strength further up to 500 beds by December 2018, he added.
“The court also said that the Chief Secretary will also monitor the developments in this regard,” Arun said. Meanwhile, all concerned departments, including health, finance and building construction will coordinate with each other to make it happen on the ground, he added.
The PIl was filed by a social activist Jyoti Sharma seeking judicial intervention in the matter. The Sadar Hospital, constructed involving Rs 131 crore, was originally conceived as a super-speciality centre but the project had to be eventually shelved in the absence of any agency to run it and finally the Government decided to run it on its own.
Spread across nearly 10 acres of area, the wing has two main connected units, the treatment wing and the ward. The treatment wing boasts the basement and G+8 floors while the ward comprises basement and G+5. The 200-bed section will be opened in the ward unit. There is also a doctors’ hostel in it.