Bhubaneswar, Jan. 27: Three years on, the proposed cost for the government's ambitious project to upgrade Capital Hospital to a state-of-the-art postgraduate institute of medical sciences has taken a mega leap from Rs 82.62 crore to Rs 160 crore.

In 2013, the then health and family welfare minister, Damodar Rout, had announced that a postgraduate institute would be set up at the hospital at a cost of Rs 82.62 crore. That was followed by a review of hospital's infrastructure by then chief secretary Bijay Patnaik. At that time, plans were made to computerise the hospital's patient records.

The government's resolve in this regard was reiterated last year by health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak. He set a 2017-18 deadline for the project. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik asked officials to expedite the project, but it still remains a non-starter as not a single brick was laid in the meantime.

Works department sources said that revised budget for the project had been estimated at Rs 160 crore. The postgraduate institute will be built on 25 acres. While 20 acres is available on the hospital campus, another five acres will be acquired by demolishing staff quarters.

A senior hospital administrator on condition of anonymity said that the upgrade of the hospital into a postgraduate institute was a mammoth task and if the state continued to dillydally, the project cost would further increase. He also hinted that the project might not see the light of the day anytime before 2019.

"We have sent a proposal to the health department and after getting its approval, we will float a tender. We are hopeful that it will be floated by the end of February," said chief engineer building Satya Ranjan Sethy.

The project envisages a postgraduate institute with seat strength of 26 in medicine, surgery, gynaecology, orthopaedic, pathology, anaesthesiology, radiology and paediatrics. The hospital superintendent, however, is hopeful of meeting the deadline.

"The process of the conversion is under way. But it is a huge project that needs time. People will be able to see the hospital turn into a health institute," said Capital Hospital superintendent Binod Mishra.

In another development, the hospital has decided to shift its major out-patient departments (OPD) to a newly constructed multi-storey building on the hospital campus.

"The works department has almost finished the work on the proposed building. They will hand over the furnished building to us and will simultaneously begin the process of shifting the outpatient departments to the new building," said Mishra.

Mishra said that the hospital, with each passing day, was receiving more patients for whom the current infrastructure was inadequate.

Hence the administration decided to shift major OPDs, including that of obstetrics and gynaecology, to the newly constructed building.

The hospital with 600 beds caters to 70,000 indoor and eight lakh outdoor patients every year. It is a major medical centre for patients from the city and the neighbouring districts of Cuttack, Nayagarh, Puri and Khurda.