s the population of the provincial metropolis is increasing, the demand for new infrastructure, including health and education facilities, is also growing.

The city has been expanding recently mostly to the south, approaching in some cases the borders of Kasur. To the north, the boundary with Sheikhupura district was blurred long ago. There is no public hospital so far to serve its southern suburbs.

Due to the absence of a public hospital, the residents of this side of Lahore and a large number of patients from the neighbouring districts of Kasur and Okara, who come to Lahore for medical treatment, are greatly inconvenienced. The public hospitals in the city are already overburdened. So are the city roads they must take. The patients and their attendants get more than their fair share of polluted air, traffic jams and parking and associated problems.

Some years back, the government shifted the fruit and vegetable market from Kot Lakhpat to Kahna. The 152 kanal land of the fruit and vegetable market was procured by Lahore Development Authority (LDA) at a heavy price.

Later, the LDA declared it a prime commercial area and announced plans for building a twin town-style building. However, the project was not initiated for several reasons, including a change in government.

During the Buzdar’s regime, it was decided that the LDA should transfer 122 kanals out of this land to the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department (SHC&MED) for the construction of a 1,000-bed hospital.

The LDA approved the conversion of the prime commercial land to a public utility site and its allotment for the construction of the hospital subject to the payment of the land cost at the reserved price.

However, the SHC&MED didn’t pay the reserve cost and the LDA cancelled the allotment and restored the commercial status of the land.

The SHC&MED has now asked that the LDA hand over the land free of cost. The LDA has refused.

A new public sector hospital is the need of the hour. It should be strategically located.

It has, meanwhile, been pointed out there are already three significant public hospitals on Ferozpur Road, i.e. Children Hospital, Gulab Devi Hospital and the Lahore General Hospital besides several private sector hospitals including Ittefaq Hospital and Masood Hospital. The construction of another public sector hospital in the same vicinity will lead to traffic congestion in the already dense-traffic area.

Town planners say another factor the government had not considered before the announcement about building a hospital at this site was a clear right of way. There is an underpass and a flyover quite close to the site and the Metro Bus line passes in front of it. There is no way to provide a U-turn for easy access to the proposed hospital site.

The town planners therefore argue that a new hospital on this land is not feasible. If the government wishes to build a new hospital, they say, it should choose a more suitable site in southern Lahore.

They say a suitable site might be acquired along Raiwind Road, Defence Road, near Ring Road or in the LDA City, which already has a dedicated site for the hospital.

The town planners say the construction of a new public sector hospital in this area can cater to the patients coming from neighbouring districts as well as the population of southern Lahore. This will help decrease the load on other public sector hospitals in the city and the traffic load on the city’s main arteries.

None of the Lahore’s existing public sector hospitals has room for further expansion. Therefore, a new public sector hospital is the need of the hour. It should be strategically located, so as to improve things for the city and the citizens.

LDA Director General Amir Ahmed Khan tells The News on Sunday, “The times call for vertical development. In the West and other modern countries state of the vertical art hospitals require minimal land area.” He also says the LDA will not part with the Kot Lakhpat fruit and vegetable market site free of cost.

The writer is a senior reporter at The News International