Foundation for district hospital to be laid on Dec 30

MARGAO, DEC 28 
The long-wait will be finally over on December 30 when the government will lay the foundation stone for the proposed state-of-the-art district hospital in Margao.
Chief Minister Digambar Kamat will lay the foundation stone for the district hospital in the presence of Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker, Pratapsing Rane, Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane, local MLA Damu Naik and Vice-Chairperson of Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation, MLA Francis Silveira.
As per the feasibility report prepared by Kirloskar Consultants, the GSIDC has proposed to set up a modern 400-bedded hospital, offering excellent facilities through the public health care system.
The consultancy report stated that the basic hospital will be built and run as per the norms for public hospital set out by the Ministry of Health for public hospitals.
However, the report speaks about converting a part of the hospital into a high quality speciality facility that will cater for medico-tourism patients.
The Government had first mooted the idea of setting up a district hospital in Margao in early 2000 when the State was ruled by the BJP. Various options were weighed by the Government, including the huge vacant land atop the Monte Hill, presently housing the TB Hospital.
The Health Department had even set its eyes on the SUDA land acquired at Madel for the proposed truck terminus, but the proposal could not take shape due to strong objections by the SUDA Board.
Finally, the Government identified the low-lying fields at Ambaji adjoining the NH-17 and land admeasuring around 40,000 square metres has been acquired to set up the district hospital.