Technical work on Nishtar Hospital phase-II begins

MULTAN: Technical work on Nishtar Hospital phase-II has been started to complete the survey of location, design and external environment.

Former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had approved the Nishtar Hospital phase-II project in Multan during his last visit here. The prime objective behind this project was to tackle the load of patients. The divisional administration held a meeting with Multan commissioner Nadeem Irshad Kiyani in the chair on Friday. He said Nishtar Hospital was not only entertaining the Multan patients but was also bearing the burden of patients from south Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh.

The commissioner said the technical committee had been assigned two tasks to search the land and area for phase-II and submit the report in next couple of days. He said new blocks of admin and medical services to improve medical facilities at the emergency wards and classrooms would be constructed. He also directed the officials to prepare a detailed report for the construction of trauma centres on divisional highways. He ordered the officials to prepare a proposal in this regard. Nishtar Medical University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mustafa Kamal Pasha said the beds capacity at the Nishtar Hospital had been increased from 1100 to 1700 while 2700 patients were being treated at the hospital on daily basis. The Final Year doctors are appointed in the wards to combat shortage of medical staff, he added.

Govt asked to introduce incentives for industrial estate investors: Industrial Estate Board of Management Multan president Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi has said that a package of incentives, facilities and concessions would soon be introduced for new investors, entrepreneurs and industrialists.

Presiding over a meeting of management board here on Friday, he said, “Multan is at a good location which connects all the four provinces of Pakistan and the CPEC route. Chinese preference for such locations was based on their strategic locations and already-built infrastructure, which could mean a lot for investors.” Industrial estates are specially acquired areas with requisite infrastructure to facilitate industrial establishments, he informed. He suggested that government should offer several incentives within these existing industrial estates, such as duty-free access to import of capital goods, sales tax and income tax exemptions for limited time and one-window facilities.

Roomi said industrialisation would help in eliminating joblessness and providing maximum number of jobs. He assured that he would try his utmost to get proprietary rights for the allotters in this industrial estate besides approaching the authorities concerned to get their problems resolved. He announced launching a "Green Estate Project" in Multan industrial estate and planting maximum number of saplings to end pollution while special arrangements were being made for the treatment of industrial waste. The meeting participants were also briefed about allocation of funds in the annual budget for 2018-19 for development works and priorities of the management board. Later, a number of committees were formed to meet the tasks.