AIIMS-Patna to be ready by Dec; health secy reviews project

After three missed deadlines, the Centre has given agencies engaged in the construction of AIIMS-Patna an ultimatum to complete the project by December, this year. 

Union health secretary CK Mishra asked construction firms to complete all work by December. He was here to review the progress of hospital construction on Wednesday. The project had to be completed by October 2012. 

Mishra also passed explicit instructions to the superintending engineer to camp here, sort out issues with the agencies, and submit him a report within a week. 

The construction firms — BL Kashyap & Sons Ltd., Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd and the Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Ltd — had complained that their bills were pending in absence of a regular superintending engineer. The superintending engineer of AIIMS Jodhpur has been given additional charge of Patna after the previous incumbent left in October 2014. 

“Our bills worth Rs 14-15 crore are pending with the AIIMS,” said PN Pandey of the BL Kashyap & Sons Ltd. The firm has to construct the 960-bed hospital and infrastructure, besides estate services, like internal roads, etc. It is this package, which has been inordinately delayed, as nearly 30-40% work still remains. 

BL Kashyap & Sons was given the Rs 351-crore hospital package in October 2010, with a completion deadline of two years. However, the firm claimed that it got the project drawings and maps a year after it was handed the project. 

The Nagarjuna construction firm has completed the construction of the medical college building and is now engaged in auditorium work. Ahluwalia Contracts is undertaking electrical work, even as basic hospital services have been initiated with 200-odd beds.

The AIIMS-Patna project has four packages, all of which are running behind schedule. Since December 2012, the deadline has been revised thrice - January 2014, December 2014 and now December 2017.