Dr Roshan Sankariya, MD, Punjab State Health Systems Corporation, said the state government has appointed a consultancy agency for the purpose. The agency had filed its report with an estimated cost of Rs 9.8 crore for the project. The project will take off in the coming financial year, 2008-2009, with the allocation of funds under the National Rural Health Mission. Once this project is started it is expected to complete in about 18 months.

Earlier, this project was considered for PPP (Public Private Partnership). A final decision is, however, pending.

The Health Department Punjab is upgrading the hospitals and health centres across the state under the National Rural Health Mission Programme. “All district-level hospitals including Subsidiary Health Centres, Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres in the state will be upgraded in the next 4-5 years. The 20 district level hospitals will be allocated Rs 20 lakhs each for this purpose.”

A Community Health Centre covers 30,000 population, and the Health Department has identified eight places in the state that lack these centres. These eight centres are expected to run in next 5 years.