The Centre has refused to provide additional funds for the AIIMS-Patna project attributing its construction cost escalation to delay, casting a shadow on the completion of the premier health hub.

Doctors working at AIIMS-Patna are worried as they have not been able to deliver full-fledged services to patients owing to non-completion of the project. AIIMS-Patna director G.K. Singh said: "The Centre had made it clear in the last meeting of the ministry of health and family welfare in January that it won't provide any more funds to the construction firm, BL & Kashyap."

He said: "The delayed pace of work has escalated project cost. The Union government is not willing to give any additional monetary help to the construction firm. As of now, we have been provided only two floors of the trauma and emergency building and three-quarters of the ground floor of the outpatient department's building. Forget about construction of other hospital blocks. The ministry and the construction firm have to work together to find a solution to the problem."

Singh said that according to the agreement, the construction firm was supposed to complete the work by 2012. Had the work been completed by that time, the project cost would have been Rs 350 crore. The delay, a source said, led to escalation of the project cost by roughly Rs 25 crore.

B.N. Pandey, general manager, BL & Kashyap, said the ministry had earlier conveyed to the construction firm that it would provide additional funds for the completion of project but it has failed to deliver. "We had sought Rs 15 crore additional mobilisation funds from the ministry, but that has not been given to us yet. Earlier, the ministry had told us that we would be provided with additional funds but this has not happened so far. Now, we have put in Rs 7 crore from our side to accelerate the pace of work but we need more money."

The source claimed that disappointment was running high among doctors of the premier health hub owing to the pace at which things were moving at AIIMS-Patna. "All the doctors of AIIMS-Patna have come from established hospitals of the country. They had huge expectations when they had joined. Now, they feel cheated because the institution is not working on full steam and its completion does not appear likely in the near future," said the source.

He added that the hospital faces three big hurdles - lack of a blood bank, an intensive care unit facility and super-speciality departments.