PUNE: In 2017, the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) had bagged the Raksha Mantri Award for Cleanliness and Greenery from amongst the 62 cantonments in India. However, the Cantonment Hospital still lacks with effluent treatment plant and till now, their waste and effluent used to go into the drains.

Recently, during the PCB’s General Body meeting they discussed the plan to procure and install an effluent treatment plant with a capacity of 500 litres per day at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Cantonment General Hospital Pune (SVPCGH). It was in 2012 that the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board had made it mandatory for all the hospitals to install an effluent treatment plant. The new guidelines which were made in 2016 also mentioned that ‘even smaller units, including nursing homes to set up such units’.

Talking about the effluent treatment plant, VD Gaikwad, Resident Medical Officer of SVPCGH, said, “Until now the effluents and waste used to go into the drains. But now the hospital will get the effluent treatment plant.”

Gaikwad also informed that the local purchase committee set up by the cantonment has given work to the outsourcing agency and the tender for the plant is approximately Rs 2.5 lakh. It will be installed at the backyard of the hospital that is behind the operation theatre. And the installation work will start soon.