Demolition threat continues to loom large on the century-old building of Osmania General Hospital (OGH) on the banks of Musi river in Hyderabad, with the newly formed Congress government in Telangana also endorsing the decision of the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi regime to raze the heritage structure to construct a new modern multi-speciality hospital
People familiar with the matter said Telangana advocate general A Sudarshan Reddy on Tuesday told a division bench of the state high court comprising chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice J Anil Kumar that the old heritage block of Osmania General Hospital has to be demolished to construct a new hospital complex, as the old structure is unfit to be used for hospital purposes.
The high court bench, which was hearing a batch of writ petitions filed by heritage conservationists opposing the demolition, posted the case to February 12 for further hearing.
The advocate general said two different expert committees constituted by the government on the suggestions of the high court also expressed the view that the existing OGH building was not fit for being used as a hospital.
He said the OGH was a teaching hospital with a sanctioned bed strength of 1,800. “Because of the precarious nature of the heritage building, we are forced to reduce the number of beds to 1,000,” Reddy said, adding that the government had already sanctioned money for the building of the new complex and it was awaiting a direction from the court.
When senior counsel Nalin Kumar arguing for the heritage activists said an independent experts committee comprising a structural engineer nominated by the director of Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad and head of Archaeological Survey of India, Telangana recommended preservation of the heritage building, the advocate general pointed out that even this independent committee said a hospital cannot be run in the old building.
Earlier, during an official review meeting on health department on Monday, chief minister A Revanth Reddy said the government would go by the high court’s direction on the old heritage building of OGH and expansion of the hospital.
An official release from the CMO said senior officials told him about the problems hampering the expansion of the OGH. Revanth Reddy said since it is a heritage building caught in a legal tangle, the government would have to wait till the high court gave a direction.