It's now official. JJ hospitals will have to shelve its plan of building a 16-storey tower because the amended Fire Safety Act states hospitals can't be taller than 30 metres.
For more than a year, the state medical education department has been trying to get special permission from the state government for the tower, but in vain. According to experts, in the allotted 30 metres, hospitals can construct only eight-storey structures. The state amended the Act in 2011 following a fire at Kolkata's multi-storeyed AMRI Hospital, which claimed 89 lives.
The hospital management had floated tenders for demolishing two structures in whose place the tower was to be built at an estimated cost of Rs600 crore. It was planning to house a super-specialty hospital in it.
Dean Dr TP Lahane told dna on Tuesday: "We met several officials at Mantralaya in an effort to persuade them to make an exception in our case and grant permission for the tower. However, they said the government had no powers to grant an exemption to us even though our project was highly laudable."
With 16 operation theatres and 38 departments, JJ hospital attends to 2,500 OPD patients daily. The hospital also sees 1,100 admissions and 200 surgeries a day. Over the past few years, it has been facing an acute shortage of space. To battle this problem, the hospital administration recently asked the government for permission to use its old prisoner ward.
State's chief architect Bipin Sankhe said, "I am not part of this project, but I can tell you that, within the allotted 30 metres, hospitals can construct only seven- to eight-storey buildings."
According to the earlier plan, nine departments were to be shifted to the proposed tower and each of them was to be dedicated to super-specialty treatment in neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, urology and plastic surgery among others. Now, the management plans to build two towers of eight stories each to accommodate the super-specialty hospital.
JJ hospital is one of the oldest and largest hospitals in Southeast Asia. This 1,352-bed hospital was established by Sir Jameshdji Jeejeebhoy around 150 years ago.
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