Super-specialty hospital to come up at SB Dey TB Sanatorium

EOI, Kurseong, 20 August 2014: The construction work for a super-specialty hospital is likely to soon start at the premises of the SB Dey TB Sanatorium in Kurseong at an estimated cost of Rs80 crore. 

Gorkhaland Territorial Administration executive member Anit Thapa said the building work could begin within a day or two. GTA chief Bimal Gurung and government officials including a team of architects visited the SB Dey TB Sanatorium on Tuesday where the super-specialty healthcare facility is to come up. Discussions were also held for starting several development projects in the Kurseong sub-division, informed Thapa.

He said the super-specialty hospital had been originally planned at the INS Bus Terminus area and the foundation stone had also been laid on February 20. However, due to various reasons, the site had to be relocated to the SB Dey TB Sanatorium.

The sanatorium area has already been earmarked for the establishment of a medical college when the GTA agreement was signed in 2011. As plenty of vacant land still remains there, the super-specialty hospital will come up along with the medical college.

The SB Dey Sanatorium is spread across 33 acres and has 301 beds, but only a handful of patients come seeking treatment from tuberculosis. It was built in 1936 by SB Dey, a noted social worker, in his personal property. The sanatorium was handed over to the state government in 1975. Previously, the sanatorium also used to house a 50-bed hospital for railway employees.