Patna: An arterial road, dug up for an ambitious infrastructure project, caves in while fish, crabs and snakes float in a waterlogged hospital - welcome to the rainy season in Bihar's capital.
The 750-bed Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) was under two-and-a-half feet of water on Sunday morning, hours after a portion of Bailey Road in the heart of the city - dug up for the Lohia Path Chakra elevated-roads-and-flyovers project - collapsed, sending officials into a tizzy.
The water at NMCH not only entered the wards but also the intensive care unit. Vikas Kumar, a patient's relative, was aghast to find fish and snakes floating in the hospital ward.
"I even caught a fish to show it to some doctors but they pleaded helplessness saying that they also were forced to work in such hellish conditions," Vijay said. "People come here to seek treatment but in such unhygienic conditions those admitted are at the risk of catching infections."
Dr Ravi Ranjan Kumar Raman, president of the junior doctors association at NMCH, said: "We had to shift some ICU patients to where equipment can be kept safely. The authorities concerned should act swiftly, otherwise the situation will only worsen."
Ravi said that doctors who live on campus were braving waterlogging both in their hostel and also in the hospital.
"The mess of our hostel No. 2 has been closed due to waterlogging. We are somehow arranging food from outside. The old hostel's roof also collapsed last night at around 2pm," he said.
Civic officials said they were working to remove excess rainwater from the NMCH campus. The executive officer of Patna City circle of PMC, Sushil Kumar Mishra, said: "The Public Health Engineering Department has provided two motors to pump out excess water. One of the motors has become non-functional. We have asked the hospital to arrange for another motor. The waterlogging situation has happened in the hospital due to not having drainage outside the hospital. The drains had been covered."
Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav shared a picture of the flooded NMCH to stick it into the government.
"Nitish Kumar's model of development. ICU of NMCH is swimming in drain water, fishes seen in ICU. Mind you, you cant question Nitish Kumar as his conscience is fast asleep and snoring with BJP," he tweeted.
