Hyderabad: The Gachibowli Sports Village constructed in 2002 for the National Games by the TD government might be converted into a super speciality government hospital ike Nims.
The government wants the new hospital to be a cancer research centre.
The 13-storey sports complex was constructed to accommodate athletes during the National Games and has been lying vacant since then.
The TS is incurring expenditure on interest for repayment of loans secured from banks.
Sports complex has huge loans
The sports complex which the TS government is planning to convert into a hospital was constructed at the Gachibowli Sports Village by securing loans from different banks.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had recently announced setting up of two new government hospitals in Hyderabad and had asked officials to identify suitable locations. Mr Rao had promised to allot funds for them in the new budget (2016-17).
Health minister C. Laxma Reddy, after touring the city’s outskirts extensively for two days, identified the sports complex that has been lying vacant for over a decade.
The minister said the new hospital at the sports complex could be opened within three months because the infrastructure was already in place.
“Each floor has 36 rooms. There is lift facility and a huge conference hall in the complex. All these facilities would be ideal to set up a hospital within a short time. We will request the CM to allot this for the hospital,” Mr Reddy said.
He added that the existing three government hospitals in Hyderabad - Osmania, Gandhi and King Koti - were located in core areas of the city and people living in the outskirts were facing difficulties in availing their services.
“Though the city has expanded phenomenally over the last two decades, no new government hospital has come up on the city’s outskirts. It is for this reason that we are looking for locations like Gachibowli,” he added.
The 13-storey sports complex and the stadium were built at a cost of Rs 70 crore. The government has been paying Rs 40 lakh as interest for the Rs 48 crore loan taken from a nationalised bank. It also spends about Rs 1.5 crore per annum on maintenance.
The N. Kiran Kumar Reddy government in 2011 had allowed the stadium to be rented out for non-sporting events, exhibitions and other commercial activities in order to generate revenue after it failed to repay the loans.
