AIIMS body approves new paid ward plan, old one to remain too

The AIIMS governing body today in- principle approved a plan for construction of a new paid ward block at a cost of Rs 100 crore to augment its capacity, scrapping the proposal for demolition of the old private ward.
The construction of the new paid ward block was one of the agenda's in today's governing body's meeting held at Nirman Bhawan.
However, the body left it on the state committee to take the final decision, hospital sources said.
According to the new proposal, new private ward block will be an eight storey building housing 113 rooms with a parking capacity of 358 cars at a cost of Rs 100 crore. The existing six-storyed old private ward has 60 rooms and hospital administration department on the ground floor.

The institutions finance committee during their 197th meeting held in May 28, last year had decided to demolish the old private ward at AIIMS to construct the new paid ward block.
However, the proposal was put on hold during the last governing body's meeting follwing protests by some faculty members and doctors who alleged corruption in the entire plan.
They had also raised concerns over the entire proposal citing that spending Rs 100 crore just to increase two more storey was a wastage of money. Moreover, the construction of the new building would take atleast a year which means that the patients won't be admitted in the private ward and the patients waiting for a bed would have to wait more.

Also, an IIT Roorkee team which studied the seismic stability of the old private ward block had recommended retrofitting which could take about 12 months.