The Union health ministry is considering the prospects of handing over construction related work at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Patna to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), a central government-owned authority in charge of public sector works said.

In an internal review meeting with AIIMS Patna officials at the hospital on Tuesday, the additional secretary in the Union ministry of health and family welfare, Sanjeev Kumar, sought a report from the hospital administration in this regard. According to sources, B.L. Kashyap & Sons - the firm entrusted with building the AIIMS hospital - faces a trust deficit from the Centre because of delay.

AIIMS-Patna director Prabhat Kumar Singh has been asked to discuss this with the project's superintending engineer and send a proposal thereafter. The director has to see the rules and conditions, whether it allows for cancellation of tender given to B.L. Kashyap & Sons at this point.

There is, however, a possibility the private firm's tender might not get cancelled and they might just be asked to complete works related to the fourth package of the AIIMS project, which is related to road construction in the AIIMS Patna campus," said a senior AIIMS-Patna administrative official who did not wished to be named.

The AIIMS-Patna project has altogether four packages.

"The remaining work in package two of the AIIMS-Patna project, related to hospital building construction, might be handed over to CPWD without cancelling the tender of B.L. Kashyap & Sons," the senior official said.

"In case the tender is cancelled and the firm goes for arbitration and holds the ministry responsible for slowly releasing the funds meant for the project, all these things would get complicated. All these points were discussed at today's meeting."

Sources said that work worth around Rs 100 crore still remained to be completed. "Earlier this year, during his visit to AIIMS-Patna in March, Union health secretary C.K. Mishra had asked the construction firm to complete construction of the hospital by December this year. But the Union additional secretary, during his visit on Tuesday, found it was nearly impossible for the firm to complete the work by then."

Patna High Court, which had started monitoring the project, had earlier set a October 2, 2012 deadline for the hospital to start functioning.

But, so far, the contractor has missed several deadlines set by the high court as well as the Centre, to complete construction work.

AIIMS-Patna doctors were in favour of handing over pending construction work to CPWD. "AIIMS-Patna is a Union government set-up. It's the Union government's right whom to award the work," said a doctor.

"The project has hugely suffered because of delay in construction work. Project cost has increased hugely because of delay. So it would be good if work is handed over to CPWD, which comprises engineers and technical people."

Among the major pending works now are construction of an oxygen pipeline, wiring related work, bio-medical waste dispensary, sewerage treatment plant, effluent treatment plant and co-ordinated drainage system.