The Urban Development Authority (UDA) has granted only Preliminary Planning Clearance subject to several conditions to the Malabe private medical college to build a teaching hospital and has fined it Rs. 30 million for unauthorized constructions, a top source said.
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| Malabe Hospital building coming up. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara |
If buildings continue to be constructed, more fines will have to be paid for unauthorized constructions, the source said.
The ‘Preliminary Planning Clearance’ valid for one year is subject to 19 conditions including the authorization of the Health Ministry and the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), the UDA last December had informed Dr. Neville Fernando of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Management (SAITM) under which comes the private medical college and the proposed hospital.
When asked, SAITM’s Company Secretary Hemantha Tennekoon said work on the hospital is continuing and the CEA has given approval for the construction of the waste disposal system while the Atomic Energy Authority has approved our construction proposal.
The Sunday Times was told to contact Mr. Tennekoon by Director of the Malabe private medical college, Sameera Senaratne, who too assured that approvals have been obtained. In an earlier interview with the Sunday Times on April 1, he said the hospital to facilitate clinical studies for the medical students would be ready by July 1.
To the query whether the proposed hospital has Health Ministry approval, both SAITM officials claimed they had a letter from Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena dated August 17, 2011. However, when the Sunday Times contacted the Health Ministry and the CEA, high-level sources stressed that no approvals have been given.
A Health Ministry source was categorical that the Malabe private medical college had not sought permission for anything except a ‘Medical Centre’ in an application submitted last year. Even that has not been approved as there were no supporting documents. “There has been no application to set up a teaching hospital up to now,” the source added.
The CEA also confirmed that Malabe had not sent an application to it with regard to setting up a hospital. A hazardous waste licence is mandatory for a hospital, explained the CEA source, adding that the CEA had not received a request from the Malabe authorities.
In the letter dated December 12, 2011, among the conditions set by the UDA are clearance from the CEA with regard to the disposal of solid waste, clinical waste, sewerage and waste water and the Health Ministry for the establishment of a hospital at that location.
The letter (in the possession of the Sunday Times) also acknowledges a letter dated December 6, 2011, from the Malabe authorities that “all construction works had been stopped”.
The land comprising 2.8197 hectares at Welivita, the Sunday Times learns, has been leased by the UDA to the Malabe authorities on the payment of about Rs. 150 million. The land falls within the Information Technology Zone according to the Gazetted Development Plan of the Kaduwela Municipal Council Area by the UDA.
Malabe Director Sameera Senaratne, meanwhile, claimed the Medical Clinic has been given preliminary approval by Western Provincial Health Services Director Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva on April 17. Final approval will come after a site visit and approval by the Private Health Services Regulatory Council, he said.When asked, he said that Dr. de Silva’s offspring, who was in the first intake to the private medical faculty in 2009, left this February to do “practicals” abroad, but Malabe has not taken his name off its register. |
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