Hoshiarpur medical college project faces delays

Five years on, the establishment of a medical college in Hoshiarpur under the centrally sponsored scheme for creating a new medical college attached to the existing District/Referral Hospital (Phase-III) remains stalled, with no construction work initiated.

Approved in January 2020 by the union government, the medical college was set to be built at a cost of ?320 crores, with a 60:40 funding split between the centre and the state. The central government had already released Rs190 crores, leaving the state to execute the project, but progress has yet to materialise.

In March 2020, the state government allocated budgetary funds for the medical college, with then Finance Minister Manpreet Badal mentioning it in his budget speech in the Vidhan Sabha. The then Industries and Commerce Minister Punjab, Sunder Sham Arora, termed the project a major “gift” for Hoshiarpur’s development. Originally scheduled for completion in two years, the construction was expected to begin in 2020 with classes starting by 2022. However, due to the pandemic, the construction work never commenced.

By 2021, revised estimates raised the cost of construction to Rs 412 crores, and the project was approved again. Hopeful promises were made about an imminent start, but the ‘soon’ was once again delayed. In the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections, candidates from various parties highlighted the completion of the medical college as a key promise. After the elections, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, along with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, visited the site in November 2023 and laid the foundation stone. During the visit, the CM announced that the medical college would be named after Shaheed Udham Singh.

The 2023 state budget once again allocated Rs 412 crores for the project, and Punjab Revenue Minister and Hoshiarpur MLA Bram Shankar Jimpa expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister and Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema for securing the funding. Despite this, the process has been delayed, with tenders for the construction being floated three times, most recently in September 2024, but no contractor has come forward due to stringent conditions in the tender documents.