Mumbai: Cooper hospital gets OC, students to move into hostel soon

Cooper Hospital

The BMC has finally issued occupancy certificates to the hostel buildings at Hinduhrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College and Dr RN Cooper Municipal General Hospital in Vile Parle on Tuesday.

This came after mid-day in a report on December 26 highlighted the plight of the students who were forced to shell out around R35,000 per month for rent and food, as the hostel buildings, though mostly ready, did not have OC.

Former Health Minister Dr Deepak Sawant has been following up the issue and had met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation chief Iqbal Singh Chahal in the matter. He said, "I got a call from the civic chief saying the BMC has issued OCs to the hostel buildings."

The boys' hostel building at Hinduhrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College and Dr RN Cooper Municipal General Hospital in Vile Parle. File pic/Sameer Markande

Chahal told mid-day, "The BMC has issued OCs to both the boys' and girls' hostels." He also assured that the hostels will start by mid-January 2023.

Also Read: No BMC clearance for its own hospital leaves medics losing out thousands in rent

A BMC official said that the total capacity of the two hostel buildings is 700, with 350 beds each. Occupancy certificates of the two buildings were pending as the Mumbai Fire Brigade had made some suggestions regarding installing some more fire safety equipment such as sprinklers.

Another official said, "We have most of the furniture needed for the hostel. All issues are solved now. Now, we just need to appoint a mess contractor. This work will be completed in the next few days and the hostel will be started."

The medical college started in 2015 while the hostel building construction started in 2018. The work was set to be completed by 2021. In the absence of the hostels, around 100 students were forced to live in rented accommodations.