Chandigarh, Sep 25 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday said persistent efforts to kick-start the PGIMER Satellite Centre in Ferozepur had finally borne fruit with the PGI, Chandigarh, appointing an executing agency to construct the Rs 233 crore centre and inviting bids for it.

Earlier, Badal had approached Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in this regard and got in-principle approval for the project.

Expressing satisfaction that the satellite centre along with a 100-bed hospital would finally be constructed within two years, Badal said, “This facility will be a boon for the border belt which has been deprived of specialty medical services for decades”.

He said even though the erstwhile SAD government had transferred 27.5 acres of land for the satellite centre after it was approved in 2016, the project did not take off for a long time.

He accused the successive Congress and AAP governments of not making any efforts to get the project expedited.

Badal said following this he had pursued the project assiduously with the Central government and was delighted that work on the same would start now.

“I join in the happiness of the people of Ferozepur parliamentary constituency who will no longer have to traverse long distances for specialty medical care,” Badal added.