Go-ahead for construction of 1,000 bed LGH phase-II.

LAHORE -- The Punjab government has released Rs2 billion to begin the construction of 1,000-bed phase-II of the Lahore General Hospital (LGH) along the Ferozepur Road near the Arfa Karim Tower.

The new mega project of the hospital has proposed five high-rise designated towers on the pattern of Arfa Kareem Tower at the 120 kanal land that earlier housed the Kot Lakhpat Fruit and Vegetable Market. It means that the new hospital will have vertical buildings instead of old horizontal pattern.

The total estimated cost of the project is Rs7bn, with June 2023 completion deadline. The Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab (IDAP) has been given a green signal to start the project.

The new infrastructure will help share the enormous burden of the LGH, which gets 7,000 patients daily at its heavily burdened emergency.

New vertical infrastructure to be built at site of Kot Lakhpat Fruit and Vegetable Market

According to the plan, some departments of the LGH, including the emergency department, would be shifted to its new infrastructure.

'Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has released Rs2bn funds out of the total cost of Rs7bn,' Post Graduate Medical Institute Principal Prof Dr Al-farid Zafar told Dawn on Monday.

He said the new facility would also help cater the health needs of the patients coming from other cities like Kasur, Depalpur, Okara etc. He said Arfa Karim Tower was one of the tallest buildings of the city and the new project of the LHG would also be constructed on the same pattern.

'Initially, we are going to construct a 200-bed accident and emergency tower,' Prof Zafar said and added that the new scheme would also have four other such towers for specialised healthcare treatment.

'It would have the first-ever multi-storey tower for infectious diseases, which would be designated not only for the treatment of the patients but also for research on infections.'

The PGMI principal said the institute would get services of highly qualified and trained experts for the research and added that a decision was made to establish a new infectious disease tower keeping in view the recent outbreaks of many...