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Ranchi Sadar Hospital
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The ailing in the capital can hope for the government’s promised healing touch sometime soon.
A hunt has, finally, begun for a private partner to run the upcoming 500-bed complex of Ranchi Sadar Hospital. State-appointed consultancy firm Indian Finance Corporation (IFC) has initiated talks with more than half a dozen potential players who will share costs of the Rs 131-crore hospital, which is being constructed under PPP mode.
An investors’ conclave is also scheduled in Ranchi next month to expose both national and international medical players to the scope of work in Jharkhand.
Investment officer of IFC Pankaj Sinha, speaking to The Telegraph over phone from New Delhi, said the dates for the conclave were being chalked out. “We believe a state-level meet will be a right platform to discuss the hospital’s outsourcing. Finances and other modalities for partnership will be discussed threadbare at the conclave,” he said.
Sinha added that they had already held talks with four-five renowned players in the medical field and the response had been “very positive”. He, however, declined to reveal names because “things are at an initial stage”.
The proposed heal hub, which was expected to see the light of day by March this year, has been postponed to early 2013 because of bureaucratic hassles, which resulted in delay in construction.
The hospital complex sprawls over 10 acres near Albert Ekka Chowk. It will primarily house an 11-storey main building (the administrative wing and clinical departments), a 10-storey doctors’ hostel and a seven-storey ward building.
Sinha maintained that the government was committed to ensuring enhanced medical services and if things went according to plan, the private partner would be selected within eight to nine months.
“Besides the sadar hospital, we are identifying private players for district hospitals and medical colleges. There is also a plan to set up advanced radiological and pathological services in all the 24 districts. These projects are expected to raise around $75 million in private sector investments. So, we are keeping fingers crossed for the investors’ meet,” he added.
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