Visakhapatnam: Works on Health city move at snail's pace
Of the plots allotted to 28 units, only five are operational.
Visakhapatnam: The works of the Health City at Arilova, being developed by the APIIC, is moving at 'snail's pace. Of the plots allotted to 28 units, only 5 are operational. Around 15 are still under construction and in the remaining, not even a trace of initiation of any kind of work is seen.
It has been already more than 10 years that the Health City was first mooted in Vizag in 2006. Barring Apollo, Pinnacle, Susrutha, Srinivasa Heath Care and GIMS, no other hospital is seen in the Health City.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who reviewed the status of the Health City, asked the APIIC to take back plots from those who didn’t begin works.
It was in 2005, that the then state government had planned the Health City making the APIIC the nodal agency to develop it and allot plots to private hospitals.
Around 61 acres was identified adjacent to Visakhapatnam Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) and it was divided into around 28 plots. Though initially giant quality health care chains like Apollo Group had evinced interest and it was allotted 10 acres, there were not many takers for the rest of the plots.
The government also wanted to generate money by selling the plots to private parties. Subsequently, barring 2 plots, the rest were allotted to various private hospitals. It will take at least another 3 years for those that are under construction to get operational.
According to sources in the APIIC, it was fear of cancellation of the allotment that some hospitals have begun construction as a token. The Health City is aimed to promote health tourism in Vizag as medical and health facilities in countries like the US, the UK, and the Middle East are costly and NRIs can be attracted to Vizag, if the high-class medical facilities are made available at moderate prices here. "We will serve notices to those who are yet to begin works," said a senior official of the district administration.
Lack of quality health care, which is a part of the social infrastructure, had deterred many from choosing Vizag as a job destination which had an effect on the new investment flow into this region.