Cidco floats tenders for 4 super-specialty hospitals

Cidco will be constructing four super-specialty hospitals in Panvel, Ulwe, Kharghar and Nerul on a public private participation (PPP) model to provide medical facilities to people from economically-weaker sections. Tenders for these works were recently floated by the planning agency.

Once the Cidco hospitals start functioning, it will also reduce the pressure on the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation's (NMMC) hospital, where locals rush to in case of emergencies, since there isn't another civic hospital in this belt.

While the NMMC's jurisdiction stretches from Digha to Belapur, Cidco administers Kharghar, Kalamboli, Kamothe, New Panvel areas. The population in these nodes is around 8 lakh and has grown tremendously in the last decade. The planning agency provides basic services in the nodes but there is a lack of medical facilities by Cidco, which has resulted in the mushrooming of several private hospitals that charge exorbitantly for the services, which the poor can't afford. As a result, many patients in these hospitals head to the NMMC hospital in Vashi, thereby increasing the load on the infrastructure at the civic hospital.

"Some of the patients we get are from areas like Kharghar and Kamothe. We cannot turn away patients, and so we help them out. Recently, the NMMC came out with a policy of charging outside patients on a higher side. If Cidco constructs super-specialty hospitals in its areas, these will have no reason to come here," said a civic official.

According to a Cidco official, "There were several requests to start hospitals in Cidco areas for quite some time now and so the decision has been taken. This will be super-specialty hospitals wherein after a patient is admitted he doesn't have to go out for other tests everything will be carried out in the hospital itself."