Construction of the long-awaited 200-bed Mymensingh Children’s Hospital has remained suspended for 20 months after funds dried up, despite the facility originally being scheduled to open 16 months ago.
Officials from the Public Works Department (PWD) said the work order was issued on 27 August 2023 and formally handed over to contractor Messrs MS Enterprise on 12 September that year.
The project, initially designed as a two-storey building on a 10-storey foundation, was allocated Tk30 crore.
Construction progressed rapidly at first, but work stopped after 30 June 2024 when no further funds were released.
PWD officials said around 40 per cent of the work has been completed and nearly Tk10 crore has already been paid to the contractor.
A fresh tender was invited one month ago under a revised proposal valued at Tk31 crore, and evaluation is under way.
PWD Sub-Divisional Engineer Md Iftekhar Alam said a new contractor would be selected and issued a work order, after which construction would resume.
The hospital is being built on three acres of land in the Madhyobader area along the bypass road in Mymensingh city.
Although basement work and first-floor pillars have been completed, equipment lies scattered across the site and exposed reinforcement rods have begun to rust.
Mymensingh, one of the country’s oldest district and divisional cities, does not have a separate children’s hospital.
Patients from six districts in greater Mymensingh as well as parts of northern Bangladesh, Sunamganj and Gazipur depend on Mymensingh Medical College Hospital for paediatric care.
The paediatric department at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital has 60 beds across three units but currently accommodates seven to eight times that number.
Deputy Director Professor Dr Md Zakiul Islam said 448 children were admitted on Monday against a capacity of 60 beds.
“Managing eight times more patients with limited manpower is extremely difficult,” he said, adding that urgent completion of the children’s hospital was essential.
The initiative to establish a specialised children’s hospital in Mymensingh began in 2017 following long-standing public demand.
Approval was granted in 2018 under a special allocation, and the district administration acquired land in 2023 before handing it over to the PWD.
The hospital had been scheduled for completion and inauguration in October 2024, but work halted four months earlier.
Messrs MS Enterprise Project Manager Md Khairul Islam Sohel said delays in land acquisition, soil filling, monsoon water and approval of design documents had pushed back the schedule.
He said the tender was cancelled in April 2025 and that the revised project proposal includes soil filling, boundary walls, a substation and completion of a full two-storey structure.
He added that construction would restart swiftly once a new work order is issued.
Local civic group Mymensingh Nagorik Samaj Member Secretary Shamsuddoha Masum expressed frustration over the prolonged halt and urged authorities to expedite completion.
Residents said the specialised hospital would ease pressure on the medical college hospital and benefit children from Mymensingh, Sherpur, Jamalpur, Netrokona, Kishoreganj, Tangail, Sunamganj, Gazipur and other northern districts.
