Raj Niwas slams AAP govt. over ‘ill-planned’ health projects; AAP blames L-G

Delhi government's rushed hospital projects face delays and financial mismanagement, sparking accusations of neglect and corruption.

The Delhi government “deliberately” initiated 24 hospital projects from 2019-21 without proper planning and with the “sole aim of awarding works to contractors”, Raj Niwas officials said on Thursday.

An official said the issue came to the fore during a recent presentation made by the Delhi Health Department before Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena about the projects that are running behind schedule and marred by “financial mismanagement”.

“The L-G noted that this was a classic example of ill-conceived and ill-planned projects, which amounts to criminal neglect,” said the official. However, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rejected the charges, accusing the L-G of not fulfilling his responsibility.

The government has initiated the construction of seven intensive care unit (ICU) hospitals, four greenfield and 13 brownfield projects. Greenfield projects are the ones that are started from scratch while brownfield projects aim at infrastructure upgrade.

Some of the brownfield projects have been initiated at Lok Nayak Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Guru Gobind Singh Government Hospital, and Aruna Asif Ali Hospital. Three of the greenfield projects are located at Jwalapuri, Hastsal and Madipur.

Another Raj Niwas official said the lack of proper planning has resulted in cost escalations as now the government needs to spend around ₹3,800 crore more to complete their construction work, for which it had initially floated tenders worth ₹3,900 crore.

Moreover, the government initiated the projects without factoring in the required staff strength and equipment, he said, adding that 37,691 healthcare professionals need to be hired for the hospitals.