COVID-19: Medical college in J-K's Rajouri to soon have new building

The work on constructing a new building of Government Medical College (GMC) in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir is being done on war footing amid COVID-19 pandemic.

The medical college and district hospital in Rajouri are running in the same building as the district hospital. The medical college will be shifted to the new building as soon as it is completed.

Being built with the cost of Rs 169 crore by the Public Works Department (PWD) of Rajouri, the upcoming government medical college will provide medical facilities in the time of COVID-19.

Assistant Engineer Medical College, Rajouri, Ashrif Malik said that they have been instructed to finish the project as soon as possible in the view of surging cases of COVID-19.

Speaking to , Malik said, "As the number of COVID-19 cases is increasing day by day, we have been given instructions to finish the construction of Government Medical College as soon as possible so we are trying day and night to complete the construction so that it can be used for the welfare of people."

Executive Engineer PWD R&B, Rajouri, Zubair Ahmed said that the medical colleges are always needed and the number of workers has been increased to complete the project soon.

"Medical colleges are always needed so considering the need of the hour we have increased the workers to build the college soon. The only problem was that we did not have enough labourers for the work as most of them were from out of the Jammu and Kashmir but still, we have given employment to the local people who need work to earn living," Ahmed told .

The principal of Government Medical College Dr Kuldip Singh said that labourers have returned to their native states but the work has resumed and this building will be complete soon.

"We are engaged in this work day and night as soon as this work is completed, we will shift the college to a new building. I hope we will shift by September after which the district hospital will run smoothly," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )