CDA razes old offices to build new Capital Hospital block

Debris from the structure has already been auctioned for Rs2m

ISLAMABAD: The apex civic body in the federal capital has started work on building an additional block for the Capital Hospital. For this purpose, it has started dismantling a handful of offices which had been set up in an older section of the facility apart from cordoning off the area.

A Capital Development Authority (CDA) official on Sunday said that debris from the dismantled wing of the hospital has been auctioned for around Rs2 million. The contract includes the removal of all waste material and debris from the site.

The expansion project is set to cost the taxpayers an estimated Rs168 million. It includes the construction of a five-storey structure with central air-conditioning, electrical work and installation of generators and other allied facilities.

The new block will have the capacity for 100 beds apart from space for setting up intensive care units (ICUs) and coronary care units (CCUs).

The official, in a statement, said that instructions have been issued for properly cordoning off the construction area to ensure the safety of patients visiting the hospital.

Construction of additional block has been on the cards for several years but had been pushed onto the backburner. However, the government has now started work on its construction owing to the need for greater hospital space in the federal capital in the wake of a population explosion.

In this regard, all formalities have been addressed and a budget has been allocated for construction work.

“Construction of additional block at the CDA hospital will not only facilitate the thousands of serving and retired employees of the CDA but also private patients through the provision of modern medical facilities,” the statement read.

Anti-encroachment drive

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate of the CDA conducted an anti-encroachment operation in the upscale Sector F-6/1 and demolished several illegal structures.

During the operation, obstructions causing hindrance to pedestrian movements in streets 32, 33 and 39, such as barbed wires and fences erected around premises, car sheds, security apparatus, lawns and gardens established and encroachments beyond plot lines were razed.

During Sunday’s operation, six iron fences, 18 guard rooms, three entrance gates, two dog centres (kennels) and several other encroachments were removed.

The CDA said that they had issued final public notices had warned residents of the area to remove encroachments from footpaths and thoroughfares, including fences and barbed wires installed around buildings, car parks, generators, guardrooms, and gardens set up on state land and other encroachments on their own.

Failure to do so would prompt the civic agency to raze it.

In a separate operation, CDA’s Enforcement Directorate along with the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration dismantled seven sheds, 13 security posts, 25 containers, two rooms and five tile factories established illegally on the green belt along the Kashmir Highway.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2019.