‘Giving better healthcare facilities topmost priority of Belagavi smart city’
BELAGAVI (Karnataka): At a time when most of the projects undertaken under the Smart Cities Mission are related to the strengthening of infrastructure, construction of roads, developing better civic amenities, the Belagavi Smart City Ltd (BSCL) has revamped Belagavi district hospital to make it a saviour for poor patients belonging to not only Karnataka, but for its neighbouring states of Goa and Maharashtra.
Given that the district was not having any dedicated knee and hip transplant facility at government healthcare centre, the Belagavi Smart City Ltd (BSCL) provided a modular operation theatre (OT) and an ambulance equipped with OT to the Belagavi Institute of Medical Science (BIMS) under the smart city mission.
While talking to Millennium Post, Belagavi Smart City CEO Syeda Afreen Bellary said, “I realized the need of a modular OT and advanced lifesaving ambulances at the hospital during the time of Covid pandemic and at that time I was posted here as the administrator. The knee and hip transplant is done here for free of cost.”
Notably, Belagavi was the first among the 20 cities selected under the Smart Cities Mission in 2015 and the projects were started in 2018. The BSCL has completed 96 projects out of 102 projects under the mission.
With health as its core area of project implementation, the BSCL has also constructed a 30-bed maternity hospital at Vantamuri and a 10-bed hospital primary health centre at Vadgaon.
Commenting on the benefits of modular OT, BIMS Director Dr Ashok Kumar Shetty, who is a close relative of noted cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty, said, “We are seeing around 1,500 patients daily and more than 1,000 are admitted here. Patients from several other districts come here for the treatment. Currently we have 1,040 beds in the hospital. It would not go wrong, if we say that it’s the new AIIMS of Karnataka.”
Besides, a new therapy centre at Mahatma Phule Garden has also been opened under the mission to provide comprehensive facilities for specially-abled children, said Bellary.
Named after educationist and social reformer Jyotirao Phule, the park is designed with “inclusiveness” as the main feature which aims to ease the life of children by providing them with customised therapy and play equipment, she said.
The B.Com graduate Roma Hasmani, a resident of Belagavi, is happy to share the fact that her 11-year-old daughter is witnessing improvements after she started bringing her child to the centre from 2021 onwards.
Hasmani, who is medically fit, has not planned a second child just because the priorities of her special child may get ignored. Hasmani supports her husband in his business and always takes their daughter to every social event.
The Belagavi Smart City has spent Rs 871 crore out of the total Rs 930 crore allocated to the special purpose vehicle.
Hailing the efforts of Belagavi, ADG (media) Rajeev Jain, who looks after the publicity work of Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, said, “The BSCL has developed the city with a human touch as the Belagavi Smart City CEO Syeda Afreen Bellary has utilized the sanctioned budget for building a robust healthcare infrastructure. It’s a very unique initiative.”
