For almost a decade now, nine acres of land housing the defunct old Gandhi Hospital building have been lying vacant in the heart of Secunderabad city, adjacent to Monda Market. The land is officially with the medical and health department and the government still hasn’t decided on its future. Though from time to time, various parties, including the railway and tourism department, APSRTC and HMDA, have shown interest in the prime property and came up with proposals for new, ambitious projects (like an integrated bus terminal) since Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s era. But the land, along with the dilapidated hospital building, non-utilised by the government for almost a decade, is now gradually being encroached upon by anti-social elements. Apart from a few guards, employed by the contractors, the land and building are unprotected.
Vendors and pavement dwellers have already begun encroaching on the margins lining the boundary walls of the building. After this, the district collector of Hyderabad, Mr N. Gulzar visited the place on Tuesday with a few revenue officials to inspect the extent of encroachment and to evict the offenders. The director of medical education, Dr Vasant Prasad, reasoned, “It’s a very costly property in the heart of the city. Precautions are being taken to safeguard the land by the revenue department. There were some proposals in the pipeline and negotiations are on. I have discussed the issue with GH superintendent and have asked him to hand over the land to the collector.”
Principal of Gandhi Medical College Dr K Venkatesh, added, “The hospital superintendent has recently asked the district collector to take over the building, though right now the responsibility lies with the medical and health department.” Hyderabad district collector N. Gulzar, commented, “The hospital authorities lack adequate machinery to protect the building from encroachment, so they informed us and asked us to do the needful. I went there to evacuate the encroachers from the hospital boundaries. The government will decide on the future of the land. Personally, I feel, an integrated bus terminal is required to decongest the highly-crowded area and ease traffic near the railway station.”