Three years on, Tata cancer hospital project takes off at Mullanpur

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 25

After a wait of almost three years, the work has finally begun on the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) Hospital at Mullanpur on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Mullanpur is being developed as New Chandigarh.

The Union Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has awarded the construction work to Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which will raise the Rs 480-crore project within 24 months, Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Punjab told The Tribune, here today.

“The total cost of the project is Rs 480 crore. This includes equipment and construction. The present contract is only for the construction and the total amount is Rs 218, exclusive of taxes,” Mahajan disclosed.

The development assumes significance as the work on Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s dream project was awaited ever since the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh laid its foundation stone on December 30, 2013.

The work started on this second-of-its-type state-of-the-art cancer institute only after Badal recently impressed upon the Centre to make this hospital operational at the earliest.

On August 27, the Punjab Chief Minister wrote a demi-official letter to the DAE Secretary, Dr Sekhar Basu, to expedite the construction work of the project.

“As there is no state-of-the-art cancer setup in the public sector in this region, there is an urgent need to make this facility operational. It is requested to expedite the construction of the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre at the Medicity in Mullanpur so that the services can be started early to make this facility a reality,” Badal urged Basu.

The Punjab Government had allotted 50-acre land, worth almost Rs 100 crore, in Medicity to the TMC to establish a world-class cancer institute. The TMC had already been undertaking cancer management in Punjab and had already set up Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital in Sangrur. “It is functioning very well and extending excellent support to cancer patients of this region at very affordable cost,” the CM added.

The project report

The DAE will spend Rs 480 crore on setting up the 100-bedded second-of-its-type cancer hospital, on the lines of the TMC Hospital in Mumbai.

According to the project report, it will be a “world-class institution for a noble cause” with a mandate for service, education and research. To be set up on the lines of the TMC, Mumbai, the institution will aspire to be a tertiary care centre for cancer, promoting prevention, cure, rehabilitation and palliation for the population of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The infrastructure of outpatient services will aim at maximising ambulatory care and minimising the need for hospitalisation. The provision of ambulatory services in an outpatient setting will minimise morbidity and costs involved in hospitalisation and maximise services with revenue optimisation.

The outpatient services will comprise consultation, diagnostic investigations, daycare surgery, biopsies and stent placements, minimal access surgeries, laser surgeries, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The diagnostic services will comprise laboratory and imaging services. These will be juxtaposed between the outpatient and inpatient areas, preferably in a standalone building to ensure quick access and logistics management.

Surgical oncology, operation theatre complex, radiation oncology facilities, medical oncology and intensive care complex will constitute therapeutic facilities.

The inpatient services will be consistent with the intensity of care and will comprise patient rooms, general wards, intensive care unit, high dependency unit, bone marrow transplant ward, isolation rooms and mortuary.

The hospital will also provide preventive oncology service, telemedicine, rehabilitation services, support services infection control and waste management, education and training and logical clustering of facilities.

Punjab Government allotted 50-acre land in Medicity

100-bedded second-of-its-type cancer hospital

• To be set up on the lines of TMC Hospital, Mumbai.
• A “world-class institution for a noble cause” with a mandate for service, education and research
• To be a tertiary care centre for cancer, promoting prevention, cure, rehabilitation and palliation 
• Aims at maximising ambulatory care and minimising the need for hospitalisation
• To cater to the population of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh