Kasaragod: After nearly 12 and a half years and two LDF governments later, the mantle of building the Kasaragod Medical College Hospital has fallen back on the Congress-led UDF government that first launched the project in November 2013.

Work on the 500-bed hospital block resumed on Wednesday, May 13, after lying frozen for four years. The restart comes after months of public anger, social media ridicule, street protests and sharp criticism over the unfinished block at Ukkinadka in Badiadka panchayat. The CPM-led LDF government had faced sustained flak for failing to complete the district’s biggest and much-anticipated healthcare project on time.

Many had branded it a “ghost building”, forcing Health Minister Veena George to release a six-minute video defending the government’s record, a response that itself was riddled with half-truths.

A two-member technical team from the Directorate of Medical Education (DME), which arrived from Thiruvananthapuram, said they have resolved differences between the two contractors handling the civil work and the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) work. "The issues have been sorted out, and the work has now restarted," said K Sreekandan Nair, who heads the DME’s technical team.

On Wednesday, Kasaragod MLA-elect Kallatra Mahin of the Indian Union Muslim League visited the site at Ukkinadka along with the team. Mahin said the project had dragged on for a decade because of what he called a lack of intent under the LDF government.

The work had remained stalled since 2022 after the government failed to clear the bills of Erode-based contractor RR Thulasi Builders. 

Even while Thulasi Builders’ dues remained unsettled, the government in January 2023 awarded the MEP contract worth around ₹22 crore to Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society (ULCCS). But the company did not begin work until the technical team arrived now.

After settling Thulasi Builders’ dues, the government floated a fresh tender for the remaining civil and finishing works. Delhi-based false ceiling experts, Trilok & Associates, won the contract for ₹45 crore, and the work order was issued in March 2026.

But even after the new contractor came on board, work did not begin due to disagreements between Trilok and Uralungal over the sequencing of civil and MEP work, said Nair. “The contract has been given to Trilok to complete the work within one year. We expect the deadline to be met,” he said.

Even that will not mean Kasaragod gets a functioning medical college hospital anytime soon.

If the schedule holds, the hospital may begin functioning only by 2028, when the first batch of 50 MBBS students admitted in October 2025 enters its third year, said officials.

Kasaragod remains Kerala’s only district without a tertiary care government hospital, forcing patients to depend largely on hospitals in Mangaluru.

The foundation stone for the medical college hospital was laid on November 30, 2013, by then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Though construction began after the LDF came to power in 2016, the hospital block remains incomplete even after two terms of the Pinarayi Vijayan government.

Meanwhile, the first batch of MBBS students continues to depend on the General Hospital in Kasaragod town as its teaching hospital, nearly an hour away from the campus, despite National Medical Commission norms requiring a teaching hospital within 30 minutes.

Classes are currently being held in the academic block. A nursing college also functions from the same block. Though three acres in the 67-acre campus has been earmarked for the nursing college, construction work has not yet begun, said Nair.

Officials said the hospital block alone will not make the medical college fully functional. At least 22 more structures, including residential quarters, hostels and speciality blocks, still have to be built. Even the mandatory women’s and staff hostels remain incomplete, with electrical work still pending. Construction of the men’s hostel has not yet begun.

Mahin said he would make the medical college hospital one of his top priorities.