Tata cancer hospital likely to begin operations next year
Nitin Jain
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 7
The work to build Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) Hospital at the Medicity in New Chandigarh, close to the PGI here, has reached advanced stage and is likely to be completed within a year.
The Union Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) had last year awarded the construction work of the hospital, christened as Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, to Shapoorji Pallonji Group, a top TMC functionary told The Tribune here on Saturday.
“The total cost of the project is Rs 480 crore. It includes cost of equipment and construction. The present contract is only for construction and the total amount is Rs 218 crore plus taxes,” he disclosed.
The TMC functionary said the project was in advanced stage of completion and was scheduled to be completed by May next. “The facility would be made fully operational around third quarter of the next year,” he added.
The development assumes significance as it will be the second-of-its-type, state-of-the-art cancer institute, the foundation stone of which was laid by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on December 30, 2013.
A visit to the site revealed that the RCC structural work of the main hospital building (proposed as ground plus six floors) has been completed up to the third floor level and the masonry work was in progress on the ground and the first floors. The RCC structural work of the doctors’ hostel block, the nurses’ hostel block and the dharamshala block, all three-storey buildings, has been completed.
In June last year, the Punjab Government had accorded all mandatory approvals for the project. Though the stone of the project was laid on December 30, 2013, it took over three years for the Union Department of Atomic Energy to allot the work on the project.
The Punjab Government had allotted 50 acres, worth almost Rs 100 crore, in Medicity to the TMC to establish a world-class cancer institute. The TMC has been undertaking cancer management in Punjab and has already set up Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital in Sangrur. “It is functioning very well and extending excellent support to cancer patients of this region at very affordfrom page 1able cost,” a senior government functionary said.
Services to be offered
The outpatient services to be offered will comprise consultation, diagnostic investigations, daycare surgery, biopsies and stent placements, minimal access surgeries, laser surgeries, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The diagnostic services will comprise laboratory and imaging services. These will be juxtaposed between the outpatient and inpatient areas, preferably in a standalone building to ensure quick access and logistics management.
Surgical oncology, operation theatre complex, radiation oncology facilities, medical oncology and intensive care complex will constitute therapeutic facilities.
The inpatient services will comprise patient rooms, general wards, intensive care unit, high dependency unit, bone marrow transplant ward, isolation rooms and mortuary.
The hospital will also provide preventive oncology service, telemedicine, rehabilitation services, support services infection control and waste management, education and training and logical clustering of facilities.
About the project
The Union Department of Atomic Energy will spend Rs 480 crore on setting up the 100-bedded second-of-its-type cancer hospital, on the lines of the TMC Hospital in Mumbai.
According to the project report, it would be a “world-class institution for a noble cause” with a mandate for service, education and research.
The institution will aspire to be a tertiary care centre for cancer, promoting prevention, cure, rehabilitation and palliation for the population of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
