BHUBANESWAR: The ambitious project of a 400-bed, multi-speciality medical facility in the Capital City of the State Government has hit a roadblock. Though eight months have passed since Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) signed an MoU with a West Bengal-based firm, the project is yet to see light of the day.
“The concessionaire KPC Hospitals Group has been served a show-cause notice to explain why tender of the project should not be cancelled,” BMC Deputy Commissioner Srimanta Mishra said. As per the norms of the contract, the firm should have commissioned construction work by March, which did not happen, Mishra said.
If BMC sources are to be believed, it is likely that the civic body will scrap the contract and float fresh tenders for the project that aims to cover treatment of BPL patients under Odisha State Treatment Fund (OSTF) and provide primary and secondary healthcare services under Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) of the Central Government.
Besides, renovation of five Government-run PHCs and dispensaries around the Capital City was also a part of the Hospital-network project and which the concessionaire was supposed to execute. If the contract is scrapped, upgradation of medical units at Kapilaprasad, Tankapani, Bharatpur, Bramheswar Patana and Gadakana will also be affected.
The recent development has come as a big disappointment for residents of Gadakana, where five acres of land had been allotted by the State Government for this project. “BMC keeps on making big promises and signs MoUs. Actual work is either inordinately delayed or scrapped,” Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Kishore Jena said. Jena, also a native of Gadakana mouza said, though the area is the largest revenue village of Bhubaneswar, it has been a victim of the Corporation’s apathy.
The project was mooted in February, 2013 and MoU signed in September, 2015. Even an international firm was hired to prepare the project report under PPP mode. While, fresh tenders are likely to be floated soon, a senior BMC official said owing to the cost factor, takers for the project will be less or none.
Going by the speed in which Government machinery runs, it will be difficult to predict when the multi-speciality hospital for BPL card holders will be a reality.