The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) will set up three urban primary healthcare centres in the township.
The centres will be equipped with basic medical diagnostic tools such as dengue testing kits and devices to measure blood pressure and oxygen levels. They will also store anti-venom vials to treat snakebites.
The centres will have doctors, nurses and trained paramedics, to be provided by the state health department, a senior NKDA official said.
One of the centres will come up in Action Area I, behind Nazrul Tirtha, and another in Action Area ID, near the New Town School. The third will come up in Action Area II.
At present, New Town has six urban primary health centres — near the New Town fairground, close to Sukhobrishti Housing Complex in Action Area III, near Water Tank 12 in Action Area II, near Delhi Public School’s New Town campus, inside the Fuji Soft building in Action Area III and near Eco Park.
Medical facilities have topped the list of demands raised by residents of all three action areas of New Town, another senior official of NKDA said.
The official said NKDA is also working on a plan to keep the existing health centres open for longer periods.
The centres open by 11am and close by 3pm.
On Sundays, the centres remain closed.
Samaresh Das, of the New Town Forum and News, a residents’ body, said such centres must be kept open for longer durations.
“We don’t have a government-run multi-speciality hospital in New Town. In case of emergencies, we have to head to private hospitals off EM Bypass, Salt Lake and Chinar Park. The decision to set up three more health centres is a welcome move, but they must be kept open round-the-clock,” Das said.
