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This is an archive article published on August 16, 2020

Covid hospital inauguration on I-Day postponed in Pune

As efforts to increase oxygen and ventilator beds, the PCMC had decided to set up the 200-bed hospital in Chinchwad, a 425-bed hospital at Balnagari and a jumbo 800-bed hospital at Nehrunagar.

The oxygen tank was supposed to arrive yesterday (Friday), so we had planned the inauguration on Independence Day, said PCMC commissioner Shravan Hardikar. (Representational)The oxygen tank was supposed to arrive yesterday (Friday), so we had planned the inauguration on Independence Day, said PCMC commissioner Shravan Hardikar. (Representational)

Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, which was planning to start a 200-bed Covid hospital in Chinchwad on Independence Day, had to postpone its inauguration. The civic administration said that arrival of the oxygen tank had been delayed, which led to the postponement.

“The oxygen tank was supposed to arrive yesterday (Friday), so we had planned the inauguration on Independence Day. However, the tank failed to arrive on time. We expect it by Sunday. After that we will start the hospital on Monday,” PCMC commissioner Shravan Hardikar said.

As efforts to increase oxygen and ventilator beds, the PCMC had decided to set up the 200-bed hospital in Chinchwad, a 425-bed hospital at Balnagari and a jumbo 800-bed hospital at Nehrunagar.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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