Building work on the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Hospital in Lebanon is due to be completed in 2010, officials said yesterday. The four-storey hospital is located in the Arqoub area of south-eastern Lebanon. "Construction and fitting of the hospital? are progressed as schedule. Specialised medical and technical teams have already started commissioning of equipment and fittings," said Abdullah al Gafli, deputy director of the Emirates Initiative for Support and Construction of Lebanon, which is behind the building project. "Once operational, the hospital will provide health and medical care services to more than 35,000 people in the area."
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the President of the UAE, ordered the construction of the hospital last year as part of the country's humanitarian efforts. At the time, officials involved in the project said they hoped the project would be completed by the end of this year. The Initiative for Support and Construction of Lebanon said the hospital was part of a series of projects aimed at serving the underprivileged population in Lebanon. These include demining missions in villages in southern Lebanon that were on the frontline of the conflict between Hizbollah and Israel in 2006.
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