The Rs 918-crore Medico City project, an ambitious healthcare hub conceptualised by the state government at Itki, some 25km from Ranchi, way back in 2016, has not found favour with private bidders.

In January 2016, the cabinet of the then Raghubar Das government had cleared the 30-acre Medico City project and roped in Ernst & Young under a private-public partnership model. The plan approval committee in June 2017 had approved Rs 918.20 crore for the project that would boast a 100-seat medical college, a college for nurses, paramedics and pharmacists, and a 500-bed 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.

The healthcare hub hit a hurdle in March last year when two chosen private partners backed out, apparently uneasy with a clause in the tender whereby the hospital would have to reserve 30 per cent of its 500 beds for BPL (below poverty line) patients whose medical expenses would be reimbursed to the hospital by the state government.

A source in the health department privy to the project revealed two private bidders were “uncomfortable” with the tender clause.

Both Blue Sapphire, which owns and runs the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences in Faridabad, and the Kollam-based Meditrina Group had argued that with the Centre’s health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat in place, the treatment cost of BPL families was reimbursed by the government and hence there was no reason to reserve beds for BPL patients in Medico City.

The health official explained that the tender clause for Medico City was drafted in 2017 when Ayushman Bharat was not in the picture. He could not explain why the clause had not been changed after Ayushman Bharat was launched in September 2018 or after the private bidders explained their unease early in 2019.

Health department principal secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni admitted to The Telegraph that the project was stuck.

“Private partners did not evince any interest in the tender process as they had certain reservations. We are exploring means to change the clause and make the tender more attractive to private bidders,” Kulkarni said last week.

That was virtually what he had told The Telegraph in March 2019.

State health deputy secretary Dileshwar Mahato parried queries.

“We are yet to get any directive from the principal secretary on the Medico City project,” he said.

A bureaucrat in the health department pointed out that 2019 did not leave much scope for action on government projects.

“The project was stuck in limbo between March and June 2019 as the model code of conduct was in place for Lok Sabha polls. Then, the model code was back in November-December for the Assembly polls,” he said.