Chandigarh, June 9 -- The Chandigarh Health Education Centre (CHEC) at Government Model High School (GMHS), Sector 22-the country's first of its kind, remains non-functional, two years after it was granted formal approval. With its repeated deferred opening, furniture procurement is now cited as the latest bottleneck. The project traces its origins to 2017, when Rotary International Chandigarh submitted a proposal for the establishment of CHEC. After the then-UT administrator's approval, two doctors from GMCH Sector 32, nominated by Rotary Club, visited health education centres in the United States and submitted a report recommending a similar facility modelled on the McMillan Centre in the USA. The project, however, languished for years before gaining momentum in 2024. It was pitched as an 'innovative project' at the project approval board (PAB) meeting of the Samagra Shiksha Scheme 2024, which approved it as the first of its kind under the scheme. The central government sanctioned Rs.50 lakh for the first year, with an additional Rs.1.2 crore promised based on senior officers' assessment of the completed project, with the explicit condition that the project must be made functional within that financial year. A collaboration between the UT administration and the Chandigarh Rotary Club, the centre was to provide comprehensive health education to approximately 1.5 lakh government school students annually, covering general health, oral health, nutrition, physical activity, substance abuse prevention, and social and emotional health. The Rotary Club committed to contributing Rs.1 crore worth of exhibits, including high-tech holographic models, and the facility was to include six teaching rooms and an auditorium. The centre has since missed four deadlines-December 2024, February 2025, March 2025, and January 2026. In late 2025, officials had attributed the delay to pending departmental approvals, giving a fresh deadline of January 2026. Missing that too, authorities now attribute the continued delay to procurement hurdles on the government e-marketplace (GeM). Director school education Nitish Singla said "The furniture procurement is delayed as requisite specifications were not available on GeM. But now the tender is finalised and procurement will start soon, subject to the condition that furniture is of specified quality." The delay is notable given that the Union ministry of education had flagged the project as one with potential for replication across the country....