The Tamil Nadu government today submitted before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) bench here that the new building in Omandurar government estate has been designed for an imposed load, very much above the requirement of a standard hospital, as per the Bureau of Indian Standards.

“The building in question, which is proposed to be converted into multi-super speciality hospital has been designed and constructed for an imposed (live) load of 4 KN/sq m, which is very much above than the required imposed for hospital building, as per Bureau of Indian Standards,” the counter affidavit filed by PWD Deputy Secretary, C Subramanian said.

Listing the features in the building constructed in the estate on Anna Salai, he submitted that Block A would be fully utilised without any structural demolition or damage by adaptation or modification.

He also said certain modifications were arrived after consulting an expert committee and a visit by doctors from AIIMS, Delhi, PGIMER, Chandigarh and Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Science, Puttaparthi.

“In this country, many buildings which have been donated to government have been converted as hospitals which are functioning well with all facilities and cater to all walks of life. Therefore, there is no difficulty in converting the buildings in ‘A’ block of the Estate as a multi-speciality hospital,” he said.

Advocate R Veeramani had challenged the environmental clearance given by the State Level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to convert the new assembly-cum-secretariat complex into a super multi-speciality hospital.

On May 16, the SEIAA had given environmental clearance to the conversion.

The NGT Chennai bench, comprising Justice Chockalingam and Prof Nagendran posted the matter to December 19.

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