Motihari, Oct. 24: For over 50,000 people of Kaithwalia village in East Champaran district, healthcare will soon be near their homes at a subsidised rate.

A super-speciality hospital, to be set up by the Patna-based Mahabir Mandir Sewa Trust, is coming up at Kaithwalia under Kalyanpur block at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore. The aim is to ensure affordable healthcare for the villagers.

“The construction cost will be borne by Mahavir Mandir Sewa Trust, while the infrastructure of the proposed hospital will be the responsibility of Bihar State Religious Trust Board. The foundation of the hospital would be laid in February, 2012,” the founder-cum-chairperson of Patna Mahavir Mandir Sewa Trust of State Religious Trust Board, Acharya Kishore Kunal, told The Telegraph over phone.

“There are three hospitals under the (Mahavir Mandir Seva) trust in and around the state capital. Besides, a heart hospital will be opened soon in Muzaffarpur. The East Champaran hospital will be the second hospital outside Patna which will be run by the trust. It will come up within two years,” he added.

“The proposed hospital (in East Champaran) will be equipped with ultra-modern facilities and cater to the needs of the rural people, especially those belonging to the underprivileged sections who do not have access to proper and timely treatment. The hospital is located around 3km from Kesarita Budhist Tope (Budha Stupa),” he said.

Referring to the initiative as a “service to the residents of Buddha Circuit”, Kunal added that the hospital was being constructed mainly because of the “continuous persuasion” of Mayankeshwar Singh, the national joint convener of the cow development cell and its in-charge in Bihar and Jharkhand.

“I had been insisting for a long time that a hospital should be set up here. Around six months ago, Acharya Kunal took up the matter seriously. He has also visited the proposed hospital site and decided to set up a hospital here,” Singh told The Telegraph.