Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin would leave for Delhi on Thursday night to meet President Droupadi Murmu the following day to invite her to attend the inauguration of Kalaignar Memorial Multi Super-Specialty Hospital on the premises of King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research Centre in Chennai. The hospital is likely to be opened on June 3, the birth anniversary of late chief minister M Karunanidhi.
The chief minister laid the foundation stone for the 1,000-bed hospital in March last year, and the work would be completed in record time.
“The construction was to have been completed by November or December, but the work was expedited with the chief minister himself visiting the site periodically. The hospital is located in the historic Saidapet assembly constituency where Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) contested in 1967 and went on to become PWD minister and later the chief minister after the death of our leader C N Annadurai,” health and family welfare minister Ma Subramanian told TOI.
Stalin announced the hospital during the birth anniversary of his father in 2021. The project was estimated to cost Rs 230 crore and administrative and financial sanctions were given too. The construction began in April last year by the public works department. The policy note of the health and family welfare department tabled in the assembly last week hinted at the work being completed by September.
The state government issued orders upgrading the hospital bed strength to 1,000 instead of 500. The total plinth area of the building for three blocks, A, B and C is 51,429sqm and the plan is to have 19 departments in various specialties, including cardiology, neurology, orthopaedics and urology. The seven-floor hospital (ground and six floors) will be the second multi-specialty hospital in the city. “The hospital in the name of Kalaignar will make Saidapet constituency proud,” said Subramanian, who won from the assembly constituency.
