A maternity hospital in Jammu as well as Srinagar to be

Two 200-bed maternity hospitals, one in Srinagar and another in Jammu, would become functional in an year while three Medical colleges in Anantnag, Baramulla and Rajouri are expected to come up in two years, the Jammu and Kashmir government said today.
The building of the maternity hospital at Jammu is complete and final finishing work is going on. Similarly, the building for the maternity hospital in Srinagar would be ready for use by early next year.
This was disclosed at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti here.
The meeting was informed that work is in progress on the Rs 25 crore Children's Hospital at Srinagar while 114 major works at the hospitals across the State are underway on which Rs 275 crore were expended last year, an official spokesman said.

In the meeting, Mufti stressed on rigorous monitoring and continuous evaluation of the progress and that costs should not be allowed to escalate.
She directed that regular monitoring of works at the three Medical Colleges being constructed at Anantnag, Baramulla and Rajouri should take place.

She also directed that all the pending issues regarding medical colleges at Kathua and Doda, should be settled.
In the Higher education sector, the spokesman said 22 colleges are under construction across the State and out of these 16 would be completed within coming few months.
Also the two Cluster Universities set up in the State recently would be moving to their campuses by September this year, he said.

He said that the IIM in the state would start functioning from makeshift arrangements from this year while faculty has been shortlisted for the two Architectural colleges and two Nursing Colleges started by the Higher education Department.
It was also given out that the Higher Education Department would be constructing seven girls hostels for which Rs 10 crore have already been released, the spokesman said.
In the Tourism sector, Mehbooba directed developing Baglihar lake as a water sports destination and fast pacing of facility upgradation at Suchetgarh to promote border tourism there.
The meeting was informed that Rs 60 crore Jammu Ropeway project is slated to be completed by March 2018 while as the first phase of Patnitop Ropeway would be completed by September 2018, the spokesman said.

In the horticulture sector, the spokesman said 650 kanals (32. 8 hectares) of land have been targeted in Kashmir province to be covered under High Density Apple plantation this year.