Three medical institutions have evinced interest in Medico City, the proposed Rs 918-crore healthcare hub, that is coming up at Itki block of Ranchi.

According to National Health Mission (Jharkhand) MD K.N. Jha, who heads the technical committee that oversaw the bidding on January 12, the three institutions are Faridabad-based tertiary care hospital Asian Institute of Medical Science, founded by Padmashri Dr Narendra Kumar Pandey, Bangalore-based Sri Sri College of Ayurvedic Science and Research Hospital and Kollam (Kerala)-based Meditrina Group of Hospitals.

“The three groups have been selected. The technical evaluation was completed by Ernst and Young over the project last week. We will now send request for proposal (RFP) to the selected groups and only after studying their price proposal, will the technical committee award a work contract,” Jha said, adding they were trying their best to expedite the project.

According to sources in the state health department, the technical committee would be issuing the RFP sometime this month and give the three institutions a month’s time to frame their price proposals.

“Ideally, a month’s time will be given for the price proposal from the groups. After which there will be another round of meetings by the technical committee, most likely in March. The contract is likely to be awarded by the end of March or April after which work will commence,” said a senior official associated with the project.

The medical hub is expected to have a hospital with a 100-bed cardiac centre, a 30-bed diabetes centre, a 50-bed chronic respiratory diseases centre and a 50-bed drug and mental rehab centre. Nearly 30 per cent of the beds in each centre would be reserved for underprivileged patients whose treatment will be sponsored by the state government.

The hub is also expected to host a medical college with 100 seats and a hospital with 500 beds, besides a college for nurses, paramedics and pharmacists on 30 acres of land.

Sources said the medical college, with a multi-specialty hospital and centres of excellence, would need a minimum of two years to build.

Significantly, in January 2016, the state cabinet had cleared the Medico City project and roped in Ernst and Young under a private-public partnership model. The plan approval committee in June 2017 had approved Rs 918.20 crore.

However, the project was delayed as only a single entity, Meditrina Hospitals, had shown interest. The tender process was not done online which subsequently led to cancellation of its tender, leading to delays.