The central government has granted Rs 50 crore to set up a 50-bedded building at the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESI) Hospital in Asansol, union minister of labour and employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar said here on Thursday.
He said that the building will be completed within March 2020, following which the bed strength of ESI Hospital will be boosted to 150.
“All the modern facilities like emergency, OPD, modular operation theatres, ICU, radiology and diagnostics unit will be set up. Already, HPL has bagged the tender and has been engaged for the construction work,” he added.
A staff quarter will also come up within the ESI Hospital complex.
Out of a total of 154 ESI hospitals in the country, 14 are in West Bengal.
Speaking on the occasion, Asansol MP and Union minister of state for public sector enterprises and heavy industries, Babul Supriyo, said that the budget has been increased on the wishes of the state chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Initially, Rs 5 crore had been granted in 2015, but she demanded Rs 25 crore and finally the ministry sanctioned Rs 50 crore for the project. But due to delay in sanctioning the plans and other related requirements, it took a long time to commence the construction work,” he claimed.
He alleged that Rs 76 lakhs have been paid to Asansol Municipal Corporation for sanctioning of building plan but the mayor of Asansol, Mr Jitendra Tewari, was not present.
“Even the local MLA and state labour minister Moloy Ghatak had been absent and instead sent a letter claiming that Centre has not spent anything for the ESI Hospital, which is very unfortunate,” he alleged. Neither Mr Ghatak nor Mr Tewari were available for their comments.