Kolkata: With funds from the state Health department, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is to take up planning, design and reconstruction of the Ramrikdas Haralalka Hospital, part of SSKM, while constructing a rehabilitation building for the existing occupiers and temporary shops near Hazra Park for shifting of the existing shops at the old hospital building.
On Monday, KMC approved the project which entails planning, design and construction of hospital building at the site of old Ramrikdas Haralalka Hospital at 108 Ashutosh Mukherjee Road, including demolition of the existing building (Phase-II).
Further, the project will include a rehabilitation building in front of premises 18, DL Khan Road where the existing occupiers of the hospital will be shifted. Additionally, construction of temporary shops at the space near Hazra Park will be done for temporary shifting of the existing shops at the old hospital building.
It was learnt that the proposal was recently cleared in a Member Mayor-In-Council (MMIC) meeting. The entire project will be executed at a cost of Rs 22,92,23,703. The project will be executed by a private group which won the bid in a tender process.
As per KMC, the demolition work and the new construction shall need to be carried out carefully so as to ensure least disturbance in the vicinity since the site is located on an otherwise round-the-clock busy Ashutosh Mukherjee Road with traffic and its neighborhood surrounded by a running hospital (built at Ph-I), old age buildings etc. There will be a requirement of elaborate technical planning and intricate logistics management at the site, it was learnt.
The hospital was started by the Haralalka family and was run by a charitable trust till it was handed over to the state government in the mid-1980s. However, over the years due to lack of manpower, including dearth of doctors and other staff, it keeled over until the Mamata Banerjee-led government came to power in 2011 and proposed a revamp. It then became an annexure of SSKM Hospital.