Bhubaneswar: The wait for affordable health care in the city continues to get longer with the civic body delaying execution of the greenfield hospital project.

On the World Health Day on April 7, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation inked a pact with Hyderabad's Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) to set up a 400-bed multi-disciplinary hospital at Gadakana and upgrade five existing dispensaries at Kapilaprasad, Brahmeswarpatna, Gadakana, Rasulgarh and Bharatpur into primary and secondary health care centres.

However, there neither project has seen any progress. According to the agreement, KIMS was to complete the project within 24 months (April 2019). However, sources said that considering the work pace, it would be difficult to complete the project on time.

Sources said the situation arose because the private partner failed to avail itself of a loan for the Rs 255-crore project. Since the project would be executed in the public-private-partnership mode, the private partner will have bear the entire cost while the civic body will only provide the land.

"According to our agreement, the private partner has formed a special purpose vehicle to execute the project. There were some funds related problems after the banks had revised the norms post demonetisation. Once it is resolved, we will go ahead with the project," said the civic body's deputy commissioner (projects) Srimanta Mishra.

This is the second such hurdle faced by the project after it was originally planned and a foundation stone laid in August 2015. Earlier, the civic body inked a deal with a Calcutta-based firm, but it was cancelled. Since then, the cost, originally set at Rs 200 crore, has escalated to Rs 255 crore.