A 103-bed private hospital is ready to open in New Town. Ujjiban Multispeciality Hospital has come up on the road opposite Biswa Bangla Convention Centre, under the Jatragachhi bridge. It will offer Covid treatment.

“We were supposed to open three months later but there is so much suffering all around due to lack of hospital beds that we took a decision to open earlier than planned,” said Prabir Mukherjee, the proprietor.

Hidco chief Debashis Sen and joint managing director Gopal Ghosh inaugurate the hospital approach road with Prabir Mukherjee on Saturday. Sudeshna Banerjee

The local government authorities have been offering them assistance to open. “They had some infrastructural bottleneck which we have taken care of at our own expense,” said Hidco chairman Debashis Sen.

An approach road has been built from the Major Arterial Road to within a stone’s throw of the hospital. “It was ready within five or six days after we made the request to Hidco,” said Mukherjee. Electric connection, though, was a major hurdle and supply was available finally on Wednesday.

The group also runs the 56-bed Good Samaritan Hospital in Park Circus and the 100-bed Apex Clinic in Behala. Both are running as Covid treatment facilities.

Ujjiban is a six-storeyed structure with basement and will extend to 450 beds. “We also want to install an oxygen plant,” Mukherjee, a resident of BL Block, said.