SHWETA KAMAT
shweta@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: In a unique exercise undertaken jointly by the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) and Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC), old and unserviceable items of GMC, lying unused for the past 20 years, have been auctioned fetching Rs 60 lakh, almost 60 percent above the actual value.
In nine different auctions in the last eight months by GSIDC, items like medical equipment, beds, furniture, wooden items and vehicles and related parts have been auctioned. The bidders are some of the biggest scrap dealers from Goa and its neighbouring States. The 10th auction will be held on June 3, wherein items worth Rs 6.73 lakh will be auctioned.
GSIDC Managing Director Sanjit Rodrigues told Herald that the Corporation has been entrusted with the task of maintenance and revamp of GMC and as such, it was decided to auction all the unused, unserviceable items that were occupying space.
Asia’s oldest medical college, GMC was established in 1842 by the Portuguese in the heart of capital city and was shifted to Bambolim in 1991. Since then the hospital has expanded with several other medical facilities attached to it. The first government-run hospital caters to the needs of people not just from Goa but also from the border districts of neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka.
GSIDC manager (engineering) Jude Carvalho said the items like medical equipments, beds, furniture and vehicles are being auctioned, freeing space in GMC. “These items were lying unused in GMC for the past two decades, occupying space (unnecessarily),” he said. The auction was carried out after the GMC medical superintendent recommended auctioning of these items.
An amount of Rs 60 lakh has been collected so far from nine auctions, which is almost 60 percent more than the actual value of the items, Carvalho said adding, “70 to 80 percent of the items have already been auctioned so far.”
After GMC, GSIDC might take up auction of unserviceable hospital equipments from various primary and urban health centres.
