Mental Health Institute fails to meet deadline

Charu Chhibber

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 27

The city’s first ever Mental Health Institute (MHI), coming up in Sector 32, has yet again failed to meet its deadline. The institute was to be operational by December this year. However, it will now be operational in 2017. The MHI has already missed its June 2015 deadline set for it to start functioning.

The foundation of the institute, which will run under the overall control of the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, was laid in October 2014. The original cost of the project was Rs 30 crore, which escalated to over Rs 44 crore due to delays. 

Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, Dr BS Chavan, professor and head, department of psychiatry, Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh, said the construction of the MHI was near completion and would most likely start operations in March next year. Chavan is the additional director of the MHI while Dr Atul Sachdev, director-principal of the GMCH-32, is the director. 

He added that the institute, with a capacity of 100 beds, will start operations with 40 beds to begin with around March next year. 

“Along with the bed capacity, we will also keep increasing the number of MD (psychiatry) seats. Right now, we have four seats. We will increase four seats every year,” he said. Giving more details, Chavan said the MHI would be one-of-its-kind mental health care institute in the country. “We plan to make it a model MHI,” he said.