Governor N. N. Vohra, who is Chairman of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, chaired a meeting at the Raj Bhavan here today to review the progress of the Board’s various ongoing major infrastructural development projects and also discussed issues relating to the operationalisation of the 230-bedded Superspeciality Hospital being established by the Shrine Board at Kakryal, near Katra.The meeting was attended by all the Jammu-based Members of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board: Dr. S. S. Bloeria, Dr. Ashok Bhan, Mr. H. L. Maini, Mr. Justice (Retd) Permod Kohli and Maj. Gen. (Retd) Shiv Kumar Sharma. At the Chairman’s request the meeting was attended by Mr. B. B. Vyas, Financial Commissioner, an ex-CEO of the Shrine Board, and besides by Mr. Ajeet Kumar Sahu, Chief Executive Officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.
After discussions the meeting decided, interalia, the various pending issues in regard to the operationalisation of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, Kakryal. CEO of the Shrine Board informed the Governor about the to-date status in regard to positioning of diagnostic and treatment machinery and equipment, medical furniture and other requisite logistics, and about the deployment of doctors, paramedics and the other required staff and stated that all the facilities in the Hospital shall be fully operational by 30th March 2016. He added that the entire required medical equipment would be in place and the doctors deployed by that time. It is pertinent to mention that this state-of-the-art Rs. 300 crore Superspeciality Hospital shall have more than 26 different streams of medicine and surgery, including cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, neurology, neuro-surgery, nephrology, urology, oncology, pulmonology, bone-marrow transplant, gastroenterology, orthopaedics, trauma-medicine, paediatrics and neonatology, obstetrics and gynaecology.
During review of the preparedness for operationalising of Shrine Board’s Sports Complex at Katra, the Governor was informed by the CEO that the construction of this state-of-the-art Sports Complex has been completed at a cost of about Rs.11 crore. The magnificent Complex is suitable for track and field events as well as team sports like Football, Handball, Cricket, Hockey and Kabaddi. Besides, a well equipped Gymnasium, a synthetic Lawn Tennis court, synthetic Basketball court and one Volleyball court have also been established. The Sports Complex also has indoor sports facilities for Table Tennis and Shooting. Adequate parking facility has been made available for users and the visitors. The Complex is equipped with rain water harvesting capacity of one lakh litres to conserve rain water and, besides, solar water heaters have been installed to save energy. Matters pertaining to the deployment of the staff and issues regarding effective maintenance of the Sports Complex also came up for discussion in the meeting and the required decisions were taken. The Chairman directed CEO to take all required initiative to secure the services of renowned coaches for imparting quality training facilities.
To secure optimal utilization of the Complex the Governor asked the CEO to formulate an annual calendar of sports events and stressed the need for organising local, state and national level sports and games competitions for promoting sports culture among our youth. He said that possibilities should be explored for organising coaching in some of the identified disciplines with a target to produce excellence in sports at various levels. The Chairman and the Board directed CEO to ensure that the Complex is used strictly for sports purposes and not allowed to be utilized for any non-sports activity whatsoever.The meeting also took stock of the construction of wayside amenities on the newly constructed Tarakote Track between Katra and Adhkuwari, which are at an advanced stage of completion.The Governor had a micro level review of various works being executed by the Shrine Board, including the SMVD College of Nursing, with a view to continuously improving and upgrading the facilities for the pilgrims as also those being undertaken as part of social responsibility initiative of the Board.