Covert demolition makes hospital buildings disappear before tender process concludes.
Even as tenders for the demolition of nine blocks of the Communicable Diseases Hospital (CDH), Tondiarpet, were to be finalised on Friday, the buildings had ‘disappeared’.
Evidently, some contractors with high connections had demolished the buildings. And nobody knows where huge quantities of teak wood and metal girders, which were part of the debris, have disappeared.
Only about 50 iron cots from CDH have reached the corporation workshop on Anna Pillai Street in Elephant Gate. When the matter was brought to his notice, Corporation commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni said he would order the vigilance department to inquire into the incident.
No registered contractor expressed knowledge about the persons who carried out the demolition or what happened to the materials that were part of the 50-year-old building. People in the know of things told TOI that the buildings had about 25 tonnes of teak and hundreds of tonnes of iron and steel girders. Most of the existing buildings have been demolished, save a small portion of a kitchen and a laboratory.
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