India News | Patna Metro: PMCH's Cancer Wing to Be Demolished, Women Hospital to Not Get Affected by Alignment

Patna, Sep 5 (PTI) The historic cancer ward of the nearly century-old Patna Medical College and Hospital is set to be demolished for undertaking work for construction of the priority corridor of the city's metro project, but the old Women Hospital of the PMCH shall not be affected by the alignment, official sources said.

The alignment of the metro was earlier planned to pass through the main Ashok Rajpath, but it has been "shifted away" from the main road to the institutional area due to a double-decker flyover being built on the historic street by the Bihar government.

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"The cancer ward was to demolished much later under the phase-wise redevelopment project of the PMCH. But, due to the ongoing metro project, it will be demolished earlier, beside other buildings in the campus," a senior official of PMCH told PTI.

The cancer ward draws its origin from the Radium Institute (now Radiotherapy Department), which in 1928 was shifted from Ranchi to the then Prince of Wales Medical College and Hospital (now PMCH) under the administrative control of the superintendent of the Patna Medical College Hospital.

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"As per the major revamp project of the PMCH, the cancer ward was required to be demolished by them. And, it was based on their redevelopment proposal that the proposed PMCH Metro Station was planned. However due to difference in the timelines of these two projects, the existing cancer ward shall be demolished by authorities," an official source told PTI.

Alternative arrangement for "20 beds shall be made in a nearby location", the source added in response to a PTI query, adding, "PMCH's old Women Hospital that faces Ashok Rajpath shall not be affected due to the metro alignment".

PMCH campus is located on the banks of river Ganga on one side and faces the old Ashok Rajpath on the other side. The historic institution, originally christened as the Prince of Wales Medical College, was established in 1925, to commemorate the visit of the then Prince of Wales to Patna in 1921. It was renamed to PMCH, a few decades after the independence.

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 cr, and the project is expected to be completed in seven years. The foundation stone of the mega project was laid by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on February 8, 2021 on the campus.

Heritage lovers, several alumni members and many other citizens have been appealing to spare some of the key heritage landmarks in the PMCH campus for the posterity, including the Administrative Building, old Bankipore General Hospital, Women Hospital and the Cancer Ward.

P N Pandit, the then head of the radiotherapy department on the 96th anniversary of the PMCH had said: "The Radium Institute (now Radiotherapy Department) is believed to be country's first cancer institute, and its walls were built with massive thickness, like a bunker to stop radiation leakage. Patients from Bihar, Jharkhand, and sometimes Nepal also come for treatment here".

The PMCH station that will come up near its main gate that has been closed since July 22 to undertake metro construction work.

The station was originally proposed to be built on an elevated structure, but it will now be constructed underground. It was later realised that an elevated stretch will involve a large number of partial or complete demolition of nearby structures, officials have earlier said.

Asked about the exact location of the PMCH metro station, the sources said, the station, having a length of 225 metre is "coming partially inside the PMCH campus and partially inside the campus of the newly-built hall of Anjuman Islamia".

The underground stations at PMCH and Patna University are coming up partially on the Ashok Rajpath.

The entry portion of PMCH shall be handed over to PMCH for reopening after completion of construction activity of the metro station.

"As per the plan, there are two public entry/exit for PMCH station. One entry/exit is towards the PMCH side with connectivity from Ashok Rajpath and other entry/exit is towards Patna Market (i.e., opposite side of PMCH) with connectivity from Ashok Rapath," they said, adding, "36 buildings or structures were coming in the alignment as per the original plan for the elevated station".

Also, as the timelines of all projects are not matching with the timeline of the metro work, hence, "various issues related to handing over of land, demolition of building etc are currently pending, the sources said.

Asked if any assessment or study was done before planning civil work, since the area is doted with various old, heritage buildings, a source said, "detailed assessment has been done by PMRCL/DMRC so as to reduce the number of project-affected structures".

Patna Metro is currently under construction in the old city, a flagship project whose foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 17, 2019.

The 31 km-long Patna Metro rail project, comprising the Danapur-Mithapur-Khemnichak corridor (Line-1) and Patna Railway Station-Pataliputra Bus Terminal corridor (Line-2). Ashok Rajpath segment of Patna Metro falls on 14.45 km-long Line-2, which is a "priority corridor" and some of the proposed stations on its underground segment are namely -- Akashwani, Gandhi Maidan, PMCH, University and Moin ul Haq Stadium.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)