Dhangadi, May 8

After a long period of uncertain wait, the foundation stone for Kailali district’s soon-to-be first medical college Geta Medical College was finally laid on Monday, to the elation of locals.

The Chairperson of the Infrastructure Development Committee of the medical college Dr Chetra Panta laid the foundation stone for the hospital building, administrative building, and academic building amidst a function here today.

Earlier, the proposed project had hit a snag after the Forest Ministry refused to allow trees at the national forest area to be felled to clear the land for the project.

Recently, work related to levelling the ground and constructing the drainage system for the hospital started with the approval of the concerned ministry to clear the required forest area.

This in turn has elated locals, who had earlier been disappointed by the ministry’s refusal.

“We were worried that the medical college would not be built after the ministry refused to allow clearing of the land. But we’re hopeful now that the foundation stone has been laid,” said Ganesh Bahadur Shahi, a local.

Kumar Rajendra JV has been entrusted with the contract to construct the hospital building for a budget of 1.03 billion rupees. The contracts for the construction of the administrative building and the academic building has been given to Rubina Construction Service with a budget of Rs 180 million and KS Raman JV with a budget of Rs 620 million respectively.

“If everything goes as planned, the project will be completed in three years’ time,” Dr Panta said today. Meanwhile, construction companies have sought permission of the administration to extract necessary construction materials from local rivers.