Cuttack: Secretary to Chief Minister (Transformation and Initiatives) 5-T VK Pandian visited the site for freeing 25 acres of land for the impending expansion of SCB Medical College and Hospital on the outskirts of the city, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Accompanied by Secretaries of Housing and Urban Development G. Mathi Vathanan, Water Resources Surendra Kumar, and Works Krishan Kumar, Pandian arrived at the SCB at 5 am and reviewed the health services provided by the hospital authorities to the patients. Later, he visited different wards and interacted with the patients. He also had a meeting with the SCB Superintendent and discussed as to how to make proper use of the vacant space in the hospital.
From the SCB Hospital, the 5-T secretary had another review meeting at the Maritime Museum at Jobra.
The team later visited Hadia Patha and Seashore Patha near Mahanadi river bank on the outskirts of the city where the proposed site of the second SCB campus will come up.
Cuttack Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani said that the team also reviewed the sites on Mahanadi Patha to be reclaimed. Plan are afoot to construct a three-lane road on either side of Talatanda canal for two-km stretch adjoining the premier hospital. Some quarters of SCB will also be shifted for this purpose so that the work can begin in March, he informed.
Notably, after the first visit of Pandian to the SCB on November 6 last year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced a Rs 1000 crore package for the construction of a 3000-bedded integrated hospital campus of the SCB.
