A meeting of health officials was held at the North Bengal Medical College & Hospital (NBMCH) on Saturday to expedite construction work of the super-speciality building and make it operational by next year.

The construction work of the block — a project approved under Pradhan Mantri Swastya Sathi Yojana with an initial fund of Rs 150 crore — was started in 2015. Once the building is functional, it would help a number of departments to augment their infrastructure and provide better treatment facilities

“Today (Saturday), we held a meeting with state PWD officials and representatives of Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation Limited — the agency that has been assigned with the project. We have a target to finish the civil and allied works by March 2022. Once these works are done, we will initiate the process of installing medical equipment and develop ICUs and other facilities at the building,” said Sushanta Roy, the officer on special duty deputed by the state health department in north Bengal.

The six-storied building will house different departments, including OPDs. As of now, around 80 per cent of the civil work has been done.

“We hope that power connectivity and water supply will be provided by the concerned state department in another month’s time,” Roy said.

In north Bengal, the NBMCH located on the outskirts of Siliguri is the largest state-run referral hospital. Apart from the region, the facility caters to patients from Bihar, Sikkim, Assam and also Nepal.

According to sources, the new block will have laboratories and testing units like CT scan, MRI, X-ray and a minor operation theatre on the ground floor.

“On the first floor, it will have 21 outpatient departments (OPDs) and a 10-bedded intensive care unit (ICU). The second floor will have a 20-bed neurology ward, 22-bed neurosurgery ward, 20-bed for plastic surgery ward and a treatment room for Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery Department (CTVS),” said an official.

“The third floor will have a 22-bedded paediatric surgery ward, a cardiology ward with 20 beds, a dialysis unit with 15 beds and a nephrology ward with 52 beds. The fourth floor will house operation theatres, doctors’ rooms and another intensive care unit,” the official added.

S K Bhatnagar, a representative of HSSC Limited, said they are all set to meet the target.

“If issues like water and power supplies are addressed, we feel the construction work and some ancillary facilities will be ready in another seven-eight months’ time.”