Bokaro: This steel hub seems poised to do a Vellore. In the next few years, Bokaro is likely to turn into a medical hub and offer affordable and quality healthcare to Jharkhand and neighbouring Bengal.
At least four large medical projects are coming up in Bokaro, it was revealed on Wednesday, the day of the third ground-breaking ceremony of Global Investors' Summit projects.
The four proposed projects in Bokaro district include a large 500-bed government hospital on 25-acre SAIL land and a 150-bed cancer hospital on 3-acre Biada land in Bokaro city itself, a multispeciality hospital that may be private or a public-private partnership project on 3 acres of district land in Chas satellite town and a private hospital-cum-college on 20 acres of individually acquired land in Mamarkukar near Chas.
This even prompted chief minister Raghubar Das to remark that in days ahead, as the government focuses on medical tourism, it may well kick off from Bokaro district.
An upbeat Bokaro DC Rai Mahimapat Ray agreed with what the chief minister said.
"In another two years, my district may be one of those places people can visit for medical needs," he said. "So far, we have Bokaro General Hospital and Sadar hospital, as well as few small private ones, but recent development will surely put my district on the medical map. What Vellore did in this sector, I think we too can do it in Bokaro, paving the way for medical tourism in terms of treatment, studies and research."
DC Ray said that tendering process was on for the government hospital planned on SAIL land. On the 3 acres earmarked in Chas for a multispeciality hospital, he said online bidding for land allocation would be done soon and only then would the contours of the project emerge.
Private investors Dr Anil Sulabh and Dr Majid Talikoti promised to pump around Rs 800 crores and Rs 100 crores to set up a private medical college-cum-hospital and a cancer hospital, respectively. The foundation stone of the former was laid on Wednesday.
In another welcome development, a Rs 150 crore medical investment proposal from nearby Dhanbad's Asharfi Hospitals group reached Bokaro Industrial Area Development Authority (Biada) at the ground-breaking ceremony. The Dhanbad investors sought 10 acres of land. The proposal will be routed to Dhanbad district administration, a Biada source said.
How many of these projects will see the light of day? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com
