Bidding for super-speciality hospitals on hold

The government had fixed June 30 as the date for opening the bids.

Awas Bandhu functions under the Housing and Urban Planning Department and the Principal Secretary of Housing and Urban Planning J N Chamber is its Executive Director. Chamber,however,denied any knowledge of the development.

An official said the bidding process has been stopped since the prospective bidders had made some suggestions to improve the feasibility of the projects. The suggestions may be incorporated in the bid document and the process revived later,he said.

The cost of the proposed 500-bedded super-specialty hospital-cum-medical colleges in Kanpur and Lucknow will be Rs 240 crore,and the 300-bed specialty hospital in Agra Rs 100 crore. The super-specialty hospital in Meerut will cost Rs 350 crore and it will be equipped with 500 teaching beds.

These projects are proposed to be developed on Design-Build-Finance-Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.

The decision comes a few days after the state government had decided to put the privatisation of government healthcare facilities in four districts on hold,leaving everyone surprised. Big private players in healthcare sector — Apollo,Fortis,Max and Rockland — had shown interest in taking up these facilities.