The Hindu Business Line : PM opens super-speciality hospital in quake-hit Bhuj

THE Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Wednesday dedicated to the nation, the super-specialty GK Hospital at Bhuj that was destroyed in the 2001 earthquake.

The hospital that was rebuilt at a cost of Rs 130 crore, mainly from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, has now sought the Centre's assistance for setting up a Rs 100-crore corpus towards maintenance and upgradation as a medical college.

The State Government has also sought an extension of the Kutch tax holiday, which was valid only up to April 2004, for a five-year period.

Earlier, on Tuesday, Mr Vajpayee had promised the people of Gujarat that the Centre would consider with sympathy the interest cost of Rs 3,000 crore being borne by the State Government towards the implementation of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP). However, he was quick to add that the onus of ceding concessions thereof fell upon the Union Finance Minister.

"The oilseed production of 30 lakh tonnes last year would grow manifold once the Narmada project is completed and India would no longer need to import edible oil," Mr Vajpayee said.

The Prime Minister, who was here to inaugurate the Vibrant Gujarat Uttarayan 2004 and the Vishwa Gujarati Parivaar Mahotsav being organised by the State Government and sponsored by the Essar group, on Tuesday said the other demand of the State Government -

for expediting the 2,000 MW gas-based power project at Pipavav in Saurashtra - was being considered favourably.

"The project will be implemented by the NTPC, with private sector participation, and will get started soon," Mr Vajpayee said.

Mr Vajpayee, who was all praises for the way in which the Gujarat Government revived itself following the communal riot induced economic slowdown, sounded a word of caution against the poison of communal hatred that kept brewing amongst the people of Ahmedabad. "I do not want to preach about peace in the land of the Mahatma. Yet, I wish that the people of Ahmedabad would give up their ways of violence. One must not seek retribution for just as the guilty should be punished," the Prime Minister said.