The high court on Monday directed the firm entrusted with the task of constructing JPNAIIMS to tell it by Tuesday whether or not the out patient department of the super specialty hospital would be ready by March 31.

A bench of Justice T. Meena Kumari and Justice Vikash Jain asked the counsel of BL Kashyap & Sons Ltd to seek instruction from the client in this regard and inform the court by Tuesday about when the matter would be taken up for hearing again.

Expressing concern over the delay in the construction of the hospital, the bench was of the view that BL Kashyap should make one block (at least one block of the building) available by March 31 to start treatment at the OPD.

Doctors have been appointed for the teaching purpose and if the OPD starts, people would be benefited, the bench observed, directing the construction firm’s counsel to inform the court in this regard by Tuesday.

The classes for the first batch of 50 MBBS students started on the campus on September 25, 2012, but the work on the hospital is lagging far behind from its original schedule.

The court passed the directions, while hearing a PIL filed by Council for Protection of Public Rights and Welfare, an NGO, through its counsel Brajesh Kumar seeking expeditious completion of the JPNAIIMS.

Following the repeated orders to BL Kashyap to file an affidavit giving details as when the firm would complete the construction work of the super specialty hospital, the contractor in its affidavit — filed through Bishwanath Pandey, deputy general manager of BL Kashyap — assured the court of completing the construction of all wings of the hospital by March 31, 2014, while two floors of the OPD block would be completed and handed over by July 31, 2013.

The construction of building relating to the OPD block would be completed by December 2013, the affidavit added. The court in its June 29, 2011, order had directed the Centre to make JPNAIIMS at Phulwarisharif operational by October 2, 2012.