Nine years after first brick, Cochin Cancer Research Centre yet to open doors

KOCHI:   The construction of the Cochin Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) in Kalamassery, which began in 2014, is dragging on even as there’s uncertainty over the appointment of its director. The delay is attributed to the suspension of work following a controversy over the quality of work. The CCRC’s work was stopped on November 26, 2019, after a portion of the under-construction building collapsed. 

The work was resumed only in November 2021 after Inkel Ltd, a public-private partnership firm wherein the state government holds a 22.78% stake, took over the supervision of the project. Since then, the construction work is rapidly progressing, officials said. According to them, 80% of the construction is over, and all that remains is interior and maintenance work. This, however, accounts for about 60% of the pending work before the `360 crore project could open its doors to the public.

But officials are hopeful of wrapping it up by the end of the year. “The work is moving forward. We expect to finish it by November 2023,” said Dr Paul George, the resident medical officer and radiation oncologist of CCRC. He also dismissed talks of the Centre not having enough funds by stating that the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board has allotted enough.

What has now emerged as a cause of concern is the fact that CCRC does not have a director or special officer yet. A director’s inputs are vital when constructing treatment rooms and operation theatres.
At the moment, Superintendent Dr P G Balagopal functions as the acting director. “There is ambiguity over staff appointment at the centre. It needs a director.

Though a notification was issued on the same, it was never published. It was only after we brought the matter to the notice of the Chief Minister that advertisements inviting applications to various posts started appearing in newspapers,” said Dr N K Sanil Kumar, a volunteer of the Justice Krishna Iyer Movement, which is campaigning for the establishments of the CCRC.

Members of the Movement have also demanded the government to appoint staff at CCRC through the Public Service Commission and have a national-level selection committee for the appointment of its director. “CCRC is going to be a significant cancer treatment, research, and teaching centre. So, the director and doctors appointed should be experts,” Kumar said.

He said the Centre is without a special officer. “Before, we had the Collector as a special officer. That’s no longer the case. It is important to reassign the Collector as a special officer as they can be great catalysts for the project’s success,” Kumar said. The Justice Krishna Iyer Movement has been at the forefront of the CCRC campaign for years.