The Hindu         07.03.2011

MCD hospital to be upgraded into high-tech ‘medicity'

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has decided to upgrade its existing Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis (RBIPMT) in North Delhi into a high-tech “medicity” comprising a general hospital and a medical college by pumping in a whopping Rs.600 crore into the project.

The civic agency which had issued expression of interest for the proposed project at its Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis has now received response from several private firms.

Sprawling campus

The proposed medicity would come up over 50 acres of RBIPMT which is presently a 1,155-bed hospital with a sprawling campus of 78 acres in Kingsway Camp.

Aimed to boost health care facilities, the medicity would include a 1,000-bed general hospital, a 200-seat medical college, a nursing college, a college of hospital administration and a pharmacy college. The medical college would come up in five years while the nursing and pharmacy colleges are to be completed in three years and would also have 200 seats each. There would also be an advanced lab for all disciplines and a trauma centre.

MCD Public Health Committee Chairman V. K. Monga said: “The project is being implemented in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. We have received applications from a number of firms and would now discuss various aspects and see which model would suit us.”

According to the civic body, the concessionaire would refurbish the RBIPMT into a modern hospital and also build a 1,000-bed general hospital. The refurbished RBIPMT would then have to be transferred to MCD within two years of entering into the agreement for PPP. The concessionaire would get to operate the medicity for a period not exceeding 30 years.