KARACHI: Construction work on the 400-bed Gulshan-e-Iqbal Hospital has been halted by the Sindh government’s Works and Services Department for the past several months due to unknown reasons.
Sources at the Sindh Health Department told PPI that the hospital’s construction work had started in May 2009 at the cost of Rs436.356 million and was supposed to be completed 2012-13 but the project’s PC-I was revised in May 2014 with an increased cost of Rs1736.359 million.
The project was supposed to be completed by the end of 2016 but only 70 per cent work could be done while the Works and Services Department has not given any justification and continues to sit mum.
The three-storey building of the hospital has been divided into several blocks. The construction work of Block-A, Block-B and Block-C has almost been completed. However, construction of Block-D, Block-E and the administrative block were halted.
Ex-provincial health minister Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar had given the contractor a deadline of December 2016 for the project’s completion during his tenure but the work is yet to be completed.
Further, high-ups in the Sindh Health Department had also planned to convert the hospital into the Institute Of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation.
The project is in limbo while no one seems to have a clue about what is going on. Additional Chief Secretary Health Dr Usman Chachar was not available for comment.
