No headway in proposal to convert City Centre project into hospital

There seems to be no headway in the proposal to convert the multi-crore abandoned Ludhiana City Centre project into a hospital.

The Ludhiana Improvement Trust’s project is lying abandoned since 2006 in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Pakhowal Road, and MLA Gurpreet Gogi had proposed to convert the defunct project into a hospital, which otherwise is becoming a safe haven for anti-social and unscrupulous elements.

The Punjab Vidhan Sabha committee on local bodies, of which Gurpreet Gogi is the Chairman, also visited the City Centre project site a few months ago but nothing, however, could be decided.

“I had proposed that the case with the private firm involved in the project should be resolved amicably. Both parties should be called and the matter should be settled but it needs intervention at the higher level to make it possible. The major chunk of the land is lying wasted while a medical college and hospital could be developed at the site,” said the MLA.

When LIT Chairman Tarsem Singh Bhinder was contacted in this regard, he said nothing could be done till the case was pending in the court. “To solve the case amicably, intervention by the higher authorities is needed. Nothing could be more appropriate if the hospital is built at the site and the people will get another government hospital in the heart of the city,” he said.

A senior LIT official said the possession of the site was with the construction company and not with the Trust. The case is sub judice in the court and any proposal is possible only when the case is solved.

Parminder Kaur, a resident of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, said the stagnant project had become an eyesore and source of problems for the people staying nearby.

“Wild vegetation has grown all over and the place has become a safe haven for addicts and anti-social elements. I heard it was being converted into a hospital but nothing has been done in this regard,” she said.

The City Centre project was initiated in 2005 but was never completed after a scam surfaced in it in 2006. While in 2017, a local court had discharged Capt Amarinder Singh and 30 others, following which an arbitration favoured developers and awarded them Rs 1,200 crore as compensation. The LIT then filed a petition against the decision. The issue is now pending in the court.