Fire-ravaged AMRI Hospitals is set to resume outpatient services at its Dhakuria facility by the first week of the New Year, just over 24 months after being forced shut.

The last hurdle was crossed when the Calcutta Municipal Corporation issued a trade licence for the main building and Annexe II, both of which have been renovated.

“We received the trade licence on Tuesday and the OPDs will start functioning by the first week of January with 50-odd doctors,” a source in the hospital said on Wednesday.

The health department last month gave AMRI Hospitals a one-year licence to reopen its medical facilities in the two buildings. Annexe I, which is structurally not connected to either of these buildings, where a fire incident early on December 9, 2011, claimed 91 lives.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself announced the cancellation of AMRI’s medical licence a day after the tragedy. The hospital’s trade licence was also withdrawn.

Sources said AMRI would start with about 20 consultation chambers, 12 of them on the first floor of the main building and the rest in Annexe II. The hospital will have 50 to 60 senior consultants along with a group of resident junior doctors.

“Each doctor will see patients three hours a day, three times a week,” an official said.

The hospital aims to expand the scale of its operations after a week of reopening by offering contracts to more doctors. “Initially, we will make do with doctors who are already with AMRI and practising at its Salt Lake and Mukundapur facilities,” the official said.

Several doctors who had left AMRI in the wake of the fire tragedy have agreed to rejoin, sources said.

“I will be seeing patients at the Dhakuria unit as soon as it reopens. Once the indoor facility becomes operational I will also do surgeries,” bariatric surgeon V.K. Bhartia said.

A veteran gynaecologist said he had been approached by the AMRI authorities to join the Dhakuria hospital as a regular consultant.

The pathology unit is still being set up and would need some more time to be ready for the grind, the AMRI official said.

The hospital would need to apply for a licence from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to reopen its nuclear medicine unit in Annexe II. Several pieces of high-end medical equipment, including PET CT and Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, had been installed in the basement of Annexe II before the 2011 fire tragedy.

The AMRI Group has run up net losses of more than Rs 100 crore over the past two years. “The cost of renovating the two buildings has added to the financial strain. So we are keen to start operations as soon as possible,” a source said.

AMRI had reduced the number of beds in its main building from 190 to 150 to improve fire safety. Annexe II has 45 beds. Once the OPDs start functioning normally, the authorities plan to apply for the health department’s permission to reopen its indoor facilities.

The hospital won’t be allowed to admit patients until it builds a staircase outside the main building, a safety requirement stipulated by the fire department. “The staircase is under construction and will be ready soon,” the source said.

The first sign of the Mamata government having a change of heart about AMRI came earlier this year when the fire department conducted a pending inspection of the main unit and Annexe II.

Sources said AMRI’s board of directors being reconstituted prompted the government to ease its stand. The reconstituted board does not have 12 of the 14 former directors.

Eight of the erstwhile AMRI directors had been arrested after the December 2011 fire but are now out on bail after spending varying periods in jail.