In order to provide the best possible healthcare facilities and further ramp up the health infrastructure to effectively deal with any exigency, especially the Covid surge, if any, in future, the Chief Secretary, Vini Mahajan, directed the authorities concerned to open the IPD (in patient department) services at the upcoming All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bathinda by September end, besides making functional the under-establishment PGI satellite centre in Sangrur by the October next.Chairing a high-level meeting here, the Chief Secretary was apprised that the construction work of PGI satellite centre in Ferozepur has been awarded last month and it will be completed within 39 months.Expressing satisfaction that the positivity rate remained static at 0.1 per cent in the state last week, the Chief Secretary instructed the officials concerned to continue aggressive testing and contact tracing ahead of the festival season.Ms Mahajan also reviewed the current status of the ongoing 31 major infrastructure development projects, which include various railway lines and road projects being carried out by Indian Railways, National Highways Authority of India and the Public Works Department, besides Indian Institute of Technology in Ropar, Indian Institute of Management in Amritsar, AIIMS in Bathinda, PGI satellite centre in Sangrur and ethanol bio-refinery project in Bathinda.She said 19 major infra projects worth Rs 13,315-crore have been completed in the state.
To further boost the inter-state road connectivity and spur economic activities in the state, the Chief Secretary wqs apprised that the work to four-lane Phagwara-Rupnagar (Rs 2574-crore), Lambra-Shahkot section of NH-71 (Rs 847-crore), Moga-Tallewal section of NH-71 (Rs 905-crore), Kharar-Ludhiana (Rs 2593 crore), Shahkot-Moga section of NH-71 (Rs766-crore), Chandigarh-Kharar (Rs 800-crore) and Ludhiana-Talwandi (Rs 479-crore) has been completed, besides executing the rehabilitation and augmentation of NH-354 section from Khemkaran to start from Amritsar bypass (Rs196-crore), Ramdas to Gurdaspur including Kartarpur Sahib Corridor (Rs 219-crore), rehabilitation and upgradation to 2-lane with paved shoulder of Mudki-Jawahar Singh Wala section of NH-254 (Rs 173-crore), Abohar-Sito Gunno-Dabwali road section of NH-354E (Rs 322-crore), Makhu-Harike-Khalra road section of NH-703B (Rs 294-crore), widening and paved shoulder of Tohana (in Haryana) Punjab-Haryana border to Moonak-Jakhal-Budhlada-Bhikhi of NH-148B (Rs 342-crore), widening/ strengthening of existing two-lane carriageway to four -lane with paved side shoulders of Harike-Zira (Rs 892-crore) was progressing fast.While construction of various building under Phase-1B for IIT in Ropar (Rs 351-crore) has been executed, implementation of gas turbo generator and heat recovery steam generator project at NFL in Bathinda and Nangal at a cost of Rs 219-crore and Rs 240-crore, respectively, work on AIIMS in Bathinda (Rs 925-crore) and Chandigarh PGI's satellite centre in Sangrur (Rs 178-crore) was also being executed on a war footing. She asked the officials concerned to further expedite the ongoing land acquisition process for ongoing railway line projects, while seeking regular progress report of the same.