Mumbai: Four years on, upgrade of three suburban hospitals awaited

The dream to convert three civicrun hospitals in the suburbs into superspeciality facilities has not been realised yet This plan received approval in 2019 and the total estimated cost of upgrading the institutesmdashPt Madan Mohan Malviya Centenary Hospital commonly known as Shatabdi hospital in Govandi Mansadevi Tulsidas MT Agarwal Hospital in Mulund and Shri Harilal Bhagwati Municipal General Hospital also known as Bhagwati hospital in Borivlimdashis Rs 1500 crore Buildings are being constructed on the premises of the three hospitals to house the new facilitiesThe underconstruction building on the premises of Bhagwati hospital PicAnurag AhireThe Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC claims all three mega projects will be completed and functional in 2023 The civic body has three major hospitalsmdashSion KEM and Nairmdashin the city but it hasnrsquot been able to establish a new hospital for decades Demands to convert or redevelop hospitals in the suburbs have been longstanding In light of the requirement and consistent requests from citizens and local representatives the projects were greenlit and construction work was initiated but four years on the projects are still under constructionAlso Read Thane man duped home buyer of Rs 142 cr caughtA former BMC official said ldquoWork is going on at a snailrsquos pace and they might keep it that way considering the electionsrdquo Recently Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced that the civic body would take over SevenHills Hospital Andheri turning it into a multispeciality hospital The demand to acquire the hospital came as local representatives cited a lack of superspeciality facilities in the suburbs Additional Municipal Commissioner Dr Sanjeev Kumar stated ldquoAll the hospitals will be completed within the next few monthsrdquoPt Madan Mohan Malviya Centenary HospitalShatabdi hospital was built in December 1982 ahead of the BMCrsquos centenary It is just 10 km from the entry point into the city from Navi Mumbai Therefore demands had been made for special facilities for the benefit of patients from the Konkan regionRs 50192 crore has been sanctioned for revamp of Shatabdi hospital at Govandi PicRajesh GuptaMP Rahul Shewale who was the first to demand that the hospital be converted into a superspeciality facility in 2008 said ldquoI made this demand when I was corporator as citizens had to rush to Sion hospital if no specialist was available There was vacant land for the construction of the new building Finally it got the push in 2019rdquoRs 50192 crore has been sanctioned for the redevelopment of the hospital The upcoming structure will be a groundpluseightstorey building with a basement It will have 580 beds including 100 in the ICUMansadevi Tulsidas AgarwalThis hospital was started on October 2 1958 on land donated by the Agarwal family The hospital currently has 140 beds but most of its departments were shifted to SVDS Hospital Mulund East as the old building was declared dilapidated in 2015 The new hospital will have 470 beds including 180 in the ICU Prakash Gangadhare an ex BJP corporator who pursued the demand for a decade said ldquoLocals from Nashik come to Mumbai to get the treatment as there are no superspeciality available There was a need for a hospital at an entry point that would cater to this need There were many technical and administrative challenges but after 16 to 17 joint meetings with representatives the plan was approved and construction was startedrdquo he addedShri Harilal Bhagwati Municipal General HospitalThe hospital was inaugurated in October 1968 But as the structure got dilapidated most services were shifted to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivli West in October 2013 The cost for the construction of the new building a groundpluseightstorey structure was estimated to be R500 crore In 2016 the first phase was completed and a 110bed medical department was started in the building Due to delays in construction and cost escalations the new hospital will have 500 beds instead of the planned 1000