Nellore: The construction work related to the buildings to the proposed government medical college and students hostels in Nellore is progressing in at a brisk pace.
It may be mentioned that the state government, at the instance of finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, had granted permission to open a medical college in the premises of Dodla Subba Reddy government hospital last year.
The government has sanctioned Rs 352 crores for the development project in the current budget. Construction works started in April this year and the government has earmarked Rs 80 Crores for this purpose.
As many as 53 teaching staff from different medical colleges across the state has been transferred to fill the posts of professors and assistant professors in the college already.
About 12 of them have been performing duties and guiding the medical officers in the headquarters hospital in Nellore, while others are expected to join duties from the next academic year.
In this backdrop, ruling party leaders appear to be breathing down the neck of the engineers of Andhra Pradesh medical and health infrastructure corporation to speed up the works to open the buildings before the release of notification for elections in 2014.
Although the academic year starts after June, ruling party bigwigs are keen on gaining political mileage by inaugurating the buildings to claim credit.
They want to ensure that their names are on the college plaque since their tenure will end by March 2014 and there is no guarantee of coming to power again
As of now, the ground floor and first floor slab works, as well as plastering, have been completed in both men and women's hostels.
The two hostels have been designed to accommodate as many as 300 students each. In case of the five-storied college building, slab work has been completed for four floors.
AP medical and health infrastructure development corporation executive engineer A.B. Surendranath Reddy said that the buildings would be ready in all respects by June next year.
He said that four lecture galleries have been designed to accommodate 180 students each in the ground and first floor of the college.
According to Reddy, department of pathology will occupy the second floor and the third floor would house departments of pharmacology and microbiology.
The fourth and fifth floors will be allotted to departments of community medicine and forensic medicine. All arrangements are being made to complete the works before elections.
