ESI Super Speciality Hospital at Goshamahal stalled for 10 years
Hyderabad: A full ten years after the ceremonial launch of a proposed 100-bed ESI Super Speciality Hospital at Seetharambagh in Goshamahal, the project site remains untouched, with no construction having begun since the foundation stone was unveiled.
According to The New Indian Express, even after 10 years of the inauguration of the project, the construction work has not been completed yet, and patients had to depend on the old dispensary for treatment. A recent response to an RTI application by the Telangana ESI Corporation disclosed that the ESIC headquarters had neither issued approval nor financial clearance, and had not even allocated land for the facility.
The initiative dates back to November 28, 2015, when the then Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya initiated the project to improve healthcare infrastructure for a rising number of users. The planned hospital was intended to support 12 ESI dispensaries in the Goshamahal region and provide services to more than one lakh insured persons and over 5.32 lakh beneficiaries.
The existing dispensary in Goshamahal already has a three-acre land suitable for establishing a state-of-the-art hospital, as it has modern amenities for indoor, outpatient, emergency, and other diagnostic services. According to an official release by the ESIC. However, even after 10 years of laying the foundation stone, there has been no development on the new hospital. A senior ESIC official told The Daily that ESIC headquarters never provided an official approval to start the construction work.
While the development of Goshamahal hospital is still a question, the Central government has already announced another project of ESIC hospital within the GHMC limits. Union minister G Kishan Reddy, on December 16, announced that another project of a 100-bed ESIC hospital at Raikunta village in Shamshabad has secured central approval so that 1.3 lakh ESI-insured workers in Rangareddy district can get easily accessible healthcare. He further informed that the 197th ESIC meeting held on December 11 granted approval for a land acquisition worth 16.125 crore.
ESI Hospital Development Committee member Galibe Vishal told TNIE, “It is beyond comprehension that the ESIC has failed to undertake the construction of a hospital whose foundation stone was laid a decade ago. We demand that the corporation first complete the Goshamahal hospital before taking up a new one at Shamshabad.”
