Pune: Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will inaugurate the jumbo hospital constructed at the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) ground in Shivajinagar on Sunday (August 23) at around 4pm. CM Thackeray would inaugurate the facility online while Pune City Mayor Murlidhar Mohol, other officials from Pune Municipal Corporation and District administration will be present at the centre.
The jumbo facility will be inaugurated by CM Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is also the Guardian Minister of Pune district. For this, a small program will be held in the premises of COEP at Shivajinagar. Along with Mayor Mohol, Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao, Pune Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar, Pune District Collector Dr Rajesh Deshmukh, Additional Municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal will be present at the site.
The COEP jumbo facility will have 600 beds including about 200 oxygenated and ICU beds. Since the August 19 deadline for operationalizing this jumbo facility was missed, the district and civic administration decided to at least complete the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) part of the facility and launch it by August 23 or 24. Accordingly, the inauguration program has been planned on Sunday (August 23).
Administration officials said that final checks are going on and once the service facilities work is completed, Covid-19 patients will be admitted in the jumbo hospital. The construction of jumbo hospital has been delayed by more than 100 hours.
Member of Parliament (MP) Girish Bapat had recently visited the facility along with his team of MLAs from Pune and protested against the delay in completion of work. Earlier, Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao had on August 17 blamed ‘Act of God’ for slowing down the construction and other work of jumbo hospital facilities in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad cities. Incessant rains in the city had hampered the work at the site, Rao had complained.
