Team Mangalorean

Mangalore: A 1.5 lakh sqft state-of-the-art building with all the modern and mult-speciality facilities will be constucted soon at the 164-year-old Lady Goschen Hospital.
Public sector oil company ONGC-MRPL has agreed to fund Rs 21 crore under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to construct the new building for the hospital.

The hospital, which was opened in 1848, had 90,000 sq ft space. The government demolished a portion of the building measuring 30,000 sq ft to construct the new facility in 2011. With ONGC-MRPL funds, now the government is all set to build a four-storied building with a basement and ground floor. Union minister for corporate affairs M Veerappa Moily took up the matter with Jaipal Reddy, his cabinet colleague to get the necessary clearance for ONGC-MRPL to donate a large chunk of their CSR outlay for the project.

A year ago, an Andhra Pradesh-based entrepreneur K Raghava Naidu had offered to donate Rs 18 crore for the construction of a multi-storied building for the hospital in memory of his daughter. Following this, the government had demolished a portion of the hospital building immediately to facilitate the construction of the new building. However, even after a year, not even the foundation work is taken up and poor patients are being put to hardships due to lack of space in the existing building.

Raghava had expressed his desire to develop Lady Goschen Hospital in memory of his daughter KR Keerthi and Mangalore City South MLA N Yogish Bhat facilitated the foundation laying ceremony. Former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa had laid the foundation stone in the presence of Raghava on April 17, 2011. Yeddyurappa also had felicitated Chittoor-based businessman Raghava and his wife KR Rukmani for promising Rs 18 crore for the building at the ceremony. However, all promises remained in paper after Yeddyurappa lost power. Now we will have to wait and see, whether at least this year the building will come up !