Patna, Jul 30 (PTI) The main gate of the historic Patna Medical College and Hospital on Ashok Rajpath has been shut to undertake construction work for a metro corridor and the PMCH station on it, officials said.
The Patna Metro, a flagship project whose foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 17, 2019, is currently under construction in the old city.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is executing the Patna Metro project, which is aimed at decongesting the city using a mass rapid transit network for the first time.
A massive redevelopment work is presently underway on the sprawling PMCH campus, situated between the banks of Ganga and the historic Ashok Rajpath.
“Patna Metro work is also going on simultaneously, and the main gate of the PMCH campus on the Ashok Rajpath has been shut for undertaking metro line construction work. The PMCH metro station will come up near the main gate site,” PMCH Principal V P Choudhary told PTI.
An order was issued and since July 22, the main gate has been shut. An old gate that led to the emergency department building on its western side, which was closed several years ago, has been reopened to facilitate the movement of doctors and other staff, patients, attendants, ambulances and general public, he said. An old gate exists on the eastern side of the campus.
The 31 km-long Patna Metro rail project, comprising the Danapur-Mithapur-Khemni Chak corridor (Line-1) and Patna Railway Station-Pataliputra Bus Terminal corridor (Line-2), is expected to benefit over a million passengers from the Bihar capital and will also reduce the number of vehicles and ease congestion, the DMRC had earlier said.
The PMCH metro station will be a part of the 14.45 km-long Patna Railway Station-Pataliputra Bus Terminal Corridor (Line-2) of the network.
“Orders have been issued to vacate quarters of the principal and other professors of the college, located near the main gate to undertake the civil work for the metro. These would be demolished. A part of the Cancer Institute’s building of the PMCH located due east of the main gate is also likely to get impacted due to the Patna Metro corridor work,” Choudhary said.
The Line-2 is traversing through the busy Ashok Rajpath, with other stations being planned, namely Gandhi Maidan, University (close to Science College building).
The PMCH Metro Station had to be “designed uniquely” to ensure that the redevelopment plans for the institutional premises did not affect construction feasibility of the station. The proposed double-decker flyover on Ashok Rajpath also necessitated modifications to the station’s design in order to ascertain feasibility of the station construction in keeping with the proposed flyover, DMRC officials had said in April.
Patna Metro’s planned station at PMCH, originally proposed to be built on an elevated structure, will now be constructed underground, and two gates for exit or entry would be located inside the campus of the institution, they had said.
DMRC authorities had said the decision was taken to go underground as an elevated stretch would have involved “a large number of partial or complete demolition of nearby structures”.
“Moreover, construction of an elevated viaduct on the busy road would have lead to choking of road traffic, since the width of Ashok Rajpath, between Catholic Church and PMCH, is extremely narrow,” the Delhi Metro had said.
As part of an infrastructure revamp plan, a 5462-bed hospital complex will come up at the old PMCH site at a cost of Rs 5,540 crore, and the project is expected to be completed in seven years.
Delhi Metro chief Vikas Kumar on July 16 had inspected multiple construction sites of the Patna Metro, including at Gandhi Maidan and the PMCH.
On the first day of his two-day visit, he had reviewed the progress of the Patna Metro project and met its various officials. PTI KND CK
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