Medical college at St George's hosp stalled due to height barrier

When the state government announced in 2021 that a new medical college would be established at St George's Hospital near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), it envisaged significant improvements in access to medical training and health-care for south Mumbai residents.

- Rupsa Chakraborty

MUMBAI: But four years on, the project remains stalled owing to height restrictions on buildings in the area and the lack of space for expansion within the hospital premises.

As per guidelines issued by the National Medical Council (NMC), a postgraduate medical college must be attached to a hospital with at least 650 beds and it must have at least 15,000 square metres of floor space, whereas St George Hospital has 500 beds.

The shortfall can only be bridged via vertical expansion, where multiple one- and two-storey standalone buildings in the premises will be replaced by a 10 or 12-storey structure, Dr Vinayak Sawardekar, superintendent of St George's Hospital, told Hindustan Times. "But because of the hospital's proximity to CSMT, such construction is prohibited," he said.

Additionally, the hospital is located on a plot classified as a reserve garden (RG) in the development plan. This has further complicated matters and posed a question mark over the fate of the proposed medical college.