A big name in healthcare, Gurgaon-based Medanta (The Medicity), which was among the frontrunners to take over Ranchi Sadar Hospital's superspeciality wing, is now out of the race.

The state health department will float fresh tenders to run the superspeciality hospital on private-public-partnership (PPP) mode.

Health minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi on Friday revealed the state hadn't been to strike a deal with Medanta for two reasons.

"First, the company (Medanta) is perhaps not ready to make the required investment to develop the building. Second, the superspeciality hospital is on Sadar Hospital campus, so rates must be commensurate with budgets of the poor," he said, implying Medanta didn't agree with the latter.

Contacted, Medanta officials said there had been no correspondence with Jharkhand government on this issue.

But, a senior Medanta marketing official admitted that running an establishment on PPP mode had its own troubles. "If Medanta does not get into PPP mode to open a hospital in Ranchi, it will definitely come up with a hospital on its own within a year in the Jharkhand capital," he said.

On March 22, Dr Naresh Trehan, founder of Gurgaon based Medanta, had inspected Sadar Hospital near Albert Ekka Chowk and met chief minister Raghubar Das.

The ace cardio-thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon said it would take at least six to eight months to make the hospital operational. Dr Trehan also told the chief minister that a special team (from Medanta) would inspect the building to assess what changes were required to make it a hospital that he could run.

Chennai-headquartered Apollo Hospitals and Calcutta-based Medica Super Speciality Hospital were other well-known contenders to run the superspeciality hospital.