After three months of floating tenders and inviting bids for the construction of a new super specialty hospital, the management committee of the Rajiv Gandhi Medical College and Chhatrapati Shivaji Hospital, Thane is yet to get started. The main issue is whether to hand the contract to any one individual or give it to a large charitable trust.

As per the proposed scheme, the new hospital will be a super specialty hospital funded mainly by Maharashtra Government and partly by private parties. As of now, the committee is also unsure about the location of the new hospital. The most viable alternative according to a source from the hospital is to build it in extension to the already existing hospital or provide for an additional place next to the hospital premises.

According to Dr Ghanekar, Dean of the hospital, while providing for a new place seems to be an uphill task given that a minimum of 50,000 sq. ft. area would be required, which is currently not available with the management, the most possible alternative would be to built it in addition to the already existing hospital. "Also we would have to look out at the Floor Space Index (FSI) and the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms that would be feasible to get started with the project", she says.

According to her three parties had shown interest in the project. "It would be finalized once the meeting with the commission is scheduled," she asserts.

Meanwhile, the college is busy trying to get its postgraduate courses to be recognized by the Medical Council of India. It has already submitted its papers to the MCI Council of India (MCI), to seek its affiliation.

Currently, the postgraduate courses being carried out at the college are said to be recognized by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS), while only the undergraduate courses being offered are said to be recognized by the MCI.

Getting the postgraduate courses in the hospital to be MCI-recognized would cost the hospital an excess of Rs. 1 crore, i.e. Rs 5 lakh for a single department given that there are 20 departments waiting to gain recognition. That would mean an additional expense to the Thane Municipal Corporation, which till now have been hesitant over the funding for the new super specialty hospital.

"We have already submitted tenders to the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) seeking aid for the funds. A proposal to this effect is yet to be sanctioned from the office of the TMC and is likely to be done in a month or two," says Dr Ghanekar.

"The whole picture would be clear only when a meeting of the management committee is scheduled with the commissioner", says Dr Ghanekar. But that too would take some time given that the committee has yet not decided on a date to convene the meet.