Delhi’s Rs 8,000 crore hospital project suffers delay; LG blames AAP govt

Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) VK Saxena on Thursday expressed grave concerns over significant delays and mismanagement in 24 hospital projects across Delhi, accusing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of “criminal neglect”.

The L-G’s review revealed that despite the initiation of construction on these hospitals over the last four to five years, no provisions were made for the approximately 38,000 posts needed to operate them.

AAP strikes back

• The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday countered Lieutenant-Governor VK Saxena’s claim of “criminal neglect” in the 24 Delhi Government Hospital, currently under construction, saying that the Services Department of the Delhi Government has been under his and Central Government’s control for the past decade.
• AAP said the L-G and Central Government were directly responsible for creating new sanctioned posts, including those for doctors, specialists and paramedics.

BJP’s response
Hospitals that were supposed to be completed within one year are still under construction after six years, and the cost has nearly doubled. It is necessary to investigate why the construction was planned, without any consideration for medical equipment, personnel or other expenses. About 38,000 personnel are required to run these hospitals, but there is no mention of this in the project reports, nor is there any budgetary provision— Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, BJP MP.

“These projects were tendered without any planning for the necessary manpower, equipment, or budgetary provisions,” an L-G official said. The official further noted that the civil construction of the hospitals began without any concrete plans for essential equipment, machinery, or staff, resulting in “shells of concrete with no equipment, beds, operation theatres, doctors, nurses or staff,” the L-G official said.

The cost to the public exchequer is Rs 8,000 crore, with the projects encompassing the redevelopment of 13 existing hospitals as “Brown Field” projects, the construction of four new “Green Field” hospitals and the re-engineering of seven existing hospitals into ICU facilities. However, none of these projects included plans for staffing needs or financial allocations for equipment and machinery, according to sources. The Tribune