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Dil Chora, the only hospital administered by the
city in Dire Dawa, is to launch an expansion project
for 60 million Br. Based on an agreement the city
made with a Chinese city, 30pc of the project cost
is expected to be covered by the government of
China. The provisional administration has,
therefore, been busy negotiating with the Chinese
Embassy.
If the Chinese agree with the pending negotiation to
finance 30pc of the total cost, the project will be
given to a Chinese contractor.
“Should the negotiation fail, a tender will be
floated to hire a local contractor,” Tsigereda Kifle
(MD), head of the Dire Dawa Health Bureau, told
Fortune.
Established in 1938 at the centre of the city in
front of Ras Hotel, the hospital, which lies on a
4,000sqm plot, gives over 50pc of its services to
patients coming from Somali and Oromia regions.
Part of the 244-room building is dilapidated and
needs rehabilitation while another six blocks with
five-storeys would be constructed according to the
project.
“Upon completion, the number of beds available is
expected to increase threefold and the hospital
would become specialised,” Tsigereda disclosed.
Dil Chora rendered a substantial volume of services
last year to victims of the flood that struck the
area causing massive human and property loss. The
town is still recovering.
“Though the allocated budget can construct a new
hospital, the location and obsolescence of Dil Chora
has convinced us to upgrade it,” Abdulaziz Mohammed,
mayor of the Dire Dawa provisional administration,
told Fortune.
Dire Dawa has grown by leaps and bounds in the past
100 years to its current population of over 100,000.
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