At a public function held in Kathmandu on Tuesday, July 10, 2007, Ambassador of India, Shri Shiv Shankar Mukherjee laid the foundation stone for a new Birthing (Maternity) Centre at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) being constructed with a grant assistance of NRs. 29.7 million from the Government of India. The project is being implemented by the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC), Kathmandu.
TUTH is one of the most prestigious medical institutions in Nepal and has played a major role in the development of health sector in this country. It has the distinction of being the first medical college in Nepal to start the undergraduate medical education in 1978 and post graduation courses in 1993. The new double-storied infrastructure being constructed with the assistance of Government of India will include facilities such as a 16-bed maternity ward, delivery rooms, laboratory, examination and consultation rooms, preparation rooms, emergency ward etc. It will significantly ease the existing pressure on the hospital’s capacity to deliver good maternity and child healthcare services.
In his address at the function, Ambassador of India stressed the importance of health infrastructure for Nepal's national development and highlighted the primacy being given to the health sector in the India-Nepal Economic Cooperation Programme. He expressed the hope that the new birthing centre constructed with the assistance of Government of India would enable TUTH to further raise the quality of medical care it offers to the people of Kathmandu and other places in Nepal.
The birthing centre, which is the ninth infrastructure project undertaken in recent years with the Indian assistance in Kathmandu, is part of the ongoing bilateral economic cooperation programme between India and Nepal, under which more than 220 projects are being realized in the sectors of education, health, community development and infrastructure covering almost all the districts of Nepal with an outlay of over NRs.2000 crores.
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