MARGAO
Visitors to the old Hospicio building availing services of the Margao Urban Health Centre have a simple question to ask -- why is the imposing ground-plus-three-storied annexe building still standing tall in the old Hospicio complex when it was declared unsafe around half a decade ago?
Is it because the PWD, after having declared the building unsafe around 2019, have not razed the structure to date since no communication has come from the health services to bring down the building, or is it simply that the building was long forgotten after the dialysis unit run by a private party was told to vacate the premises and more so after the Hospicio services were shifted to the South Goa District Hospital over a year and a half ago.
Well, these and other questions have come to the fore as visitors thronging the old Hospicio building, after the shifting of the Margao Urban Health Centre services following the collapse of the UHC building, have come across a three-storied unoccupied building, barricaded by red-coloured tin sheets.
Urban health officials feigned ignorance over the status of the building, saying the matter falls in the domain of the Health Services.
Inquiries by The Goan, however, revealed that the building was declared unsafe by the PWD way back in 2017 after a portion of the building parapet came crashing down, leaving a couple of persons injured with minor injuries.
The three-storied building was in the news in June 2018 after a major fire broke out on the top floor housing a dialysis centre, destroying property worth lakhs of rupees.
The Hospicio Medical Superintendent Dr Ira Almeida had told the media that after the Hospicio management had received a report from the PWD stating that the hospital annexe building was unsafe for occupation, they had shifted the casualty and the medicine ward from the building to other sections of the hospital.
A senior PWD engineer confirmed to The Goan that the annexe building was declared unsafe after a portion of the parapet came crashing down and a subsequent structural stability test revealed that the building was unsafe for occupation.
The engineer, however, hastened to add that the PWD has to date not received a request from the health services to raze down the unsafe annexe building.
“A written request from the Health services is required to initiate action since the demolition would involve a lot of money since it is a three-storied structure,” the engineer remarked.
Senior health officials comprising Health Director Dr Geeta Kakodkar and Jt Director looking after the building too had come across the three-storied building barricade with tin sheets when they had descended at the Old Hospicio complex to explore the possibility of shifting the Margao Urban Health Centre services to the old Hospicio building.
Sources, however, expressed surprise that an unsafe building is still standing tall in the old Hospicio complex, more so after a portion of the building parapet had crashed down and the building was ravaged by fire in 2018.
Goa College of Engineering asked to conduct structural stability test of Margao UHC bldg
MARGAO
The PWD, Buildings have on Tuesday officially written to the Goa College of Engineering, Farmagudi to conduct a structural stability test of the Margao Urban Health Centre heritage building.
The request by the PWD came after a façade of the Margao Urban Health Centre came crashing down in the wee hours of Saturday.
The incident had only thrown up questions about the safety of the visitors, staff and members of the public visiting the Urban Health Centre for various services.
Questions were also raised over the safety of the women and children who throng the Urban Health Centre right adjoining the collapsed building for immunisation.
Taking no chances, the government later decided to shift the Margao Urban Health Centre to the old Hospicio building as a matter of abundant caution.
A team of the Goa Engineering College, Farmagudi is expected to conduct the structural stability test of the heritage Margao Urban health Centre building later this week.
