On Wednesday, corporation officials used loudspeakers to warn vendors and shop owners in streets around the Madurai GRH area to remove encroachments from the footpath and to keep the area clean.
“Ambulances have had to move through the campus slowly because of all the bumps and avoiding piles of waste for several months,” patient S Rajendran said. A senior corporation official said the works were not conceived for Vijay’s programme but previously planned projects whose execution had now been accelerated. “We have been in talks with the hospital administration and other departments to work on relaying paver blocks and painting the walls in a phased manner,” the official said.
For patients, the sudden pace has sharpened a question over why routine grievances required the prospect of a high-profile visit before action followed.
Madurai: Months of complaints over broken roads, sewage leaks and waste at Govt Rajaji Hospital brought little visible change, but preparations have accelerated after word spread about chief minister C Joseph Vijay’s expected Sept 28 visit. The main approach road is now being relaid, while damaged internal stretches have been dug up and are being reset with fresh paver blocks. Walls that had remained stained or were peeling for years are being whitewashed and repainted as multiple departments work simultaneously across the hospital campus. The overnight makeover follows prolonged inconvenience for patients, attenders and ambulances using the hospital.