Health dept’s U-turn: Pays BDA Rs 9 cr for land to build hospital in Karnataka's Ullal

The Health Department has finally paid the Rs 9-crore subsidised fee for the 2.6-acre land at Sir M Visvesvaraya Layout to build a multi-specialty hospital.

The department has taken a U-turn from its earlier decision to seek the BDA land for free.

On March 10, DH reported that the department floated a tender to build the hospital at Ullal in the Yeshwantpur Assembly constituency even before it could settle the deal concerning the land with the BDA. The report highlighted that the Rs 89-crore tender was floated on February 27, but the department wrote to the BDA a day later seeking the 2.5-acre land required to build the hospital for free.

Over a dozen groups, including residents’ welfare associations, political parties and welfare groups, were concerned about the much-needed hospital project even as the health department declined to take up the BDA’s subsidised offer. This led to suspicions that the hospital’s location could be shifted after the Assembly polls.

But after the department paid Rs 9 crore for the 10,525 sqm area, jubilant local residents acknowledged Yeshwantpur MLA and Cooperation Minister S T Somashekar’s role in making sure that the constituency has a hospital.

In its letter to the BDA’s chief dated March 14, the Health and Family Welfare Department confirmed that it had paid for the land, which is estimated to cost over Rs 50 crore.

B M Shivakumar, convener of Jayaprakash Narayana Vichara Vedike; Rahul Dharmasena of the Aam Aadmi Party; and Muttu Manickam, a social worker, said they have withdrawn the plan to stage a protest on March 20, in view of the health department’s decision.