Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Monday laid the foundation stone for a 24-storey multi-super specialty hospital in Warangal at the site where the 138-year-old Warangal Central Prison was demolished. He said it would be the tallest tower in Warangal city once completed. and set a deadline of one-and-a-half years for the officials and public representatives to complete the hospital.

"I read somewhere that they built a 10-storey building in just 28 hours. Our old habits must die. Instead of taking years to complete a project, this one must be ready in the quickest possible time," he told the officials.





Asking a team of health department officials and public representatives to visit Canada and study how the hospitals are built there, he said the Warangal hospital should be even better.

The Chief Minister said that the mother mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR) in Telangana state had come down over the years. He said focus on mother and child safety must increase further and mother and child health centres must be set up at every level across the state.

Rao noted that the existing MGM Hospital, Warangal Central Prison area, Kakatiya Medical College and Regional Eye Hospital which were set up adjacent to each other constituted about 200 acres.





"A major health hub must come up in the entirety of this area. A dental hospital and a college will also be sanctioned here. The MGM Hospital and the Regional Eye Hospital may be demolished if required and better buildings can come up in their places. The state would bear the expense even if it costs `3,000 crore," he said.

The Chief Minister said Warangal, which is the second most important city in the state, must have all health facilities so that it would spread into rural areas. Even the airport in Mamnoor will be reopened soon to fulfil this purpose.





"In a bid to not centre everything around Hyderabad, I proposed to set up the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences in Warangal and also inaugurated its administrative building today," he said.