Govt. to develop health facilities along railway network

The Ministries of Railways and Health & Family Welfare today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development of healthcare infrastructure along the railway network in the country.

The initiative is aimed at providing access to the good healthcare facilities to common people across the country, an official press release said.

The MoU was signed by Health Secretary K Sujatha Rao and Railway Board Chairman S S Khurana in the presence of Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Railways Minister Mamata Bannerjee.

According to the MoU, the two Ministries will collaborate to develop healthcare facilities, both for allopathic and Indian systems of medicine, including diagnostic centres, out-patient centres, inpatient medical treatment centres, super speciality hospitals, medical colleges and nursing colleges. These facilities could also be used as trauma centres for emergencies, accidents and natural disasters, an official press release said.

Apart from railway passengers, Railway employees and their families, public living around such areas and other citizens will also benefit from the proposed facilities, it said.

The Ministry of Railways has tentatively identified land areas it can spare all over the country, including 361 plots of at least 200 sq m each, 88 of 5 acres each and 41of 20 acres in the vicinity of railway stations. The Ministry of Railways will add to the list of spareable land bank on an ongoing basis as and when more plots become available. More land can be provided depending on need and availability, the release said.

Wherever feasible, the hospitals will be developed with plans to connect them to medical colleges at a later date. The Ministries will set up a High Power Working Group to work out a time-bound programme for early identification of specific projects which could be taken up on priority basis.

Even though many of the existing facilities provided by the Government in rural and urban areas facilities are normally accessed by the habitation around the railway stations, they are grossly inadequate specially in large urban centres. Further it is difficult for the floating population to access such facilities. The State Governments are often constrained to expand the health care facilities due to non-availability of required land at important places. This is more so in large towns where sizeable population has come up in and around the railway system. The proposed facility will address this issue, the release added.

NNN