NEW DELHI: Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) on Tuesday executed a Concession Agreement with Narayana Hrudayalaya Private Limited, Bangalore for operation of a Multi-Specialty Hospital at Kakryal in Katra.
The concession agreement was signed by Dr. M.K Bhandari, Chief Executive Officer of the Shrine Board and Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, Vice-chairman and Group CEO, Narayana Hrudayalaya in the presence of N.N Vohra, Governor, J&K and Chairman, SMVDSB and Dr. Devi Shetty, Chairman of Narayana Hrudayalaya. Others present at the important event included E. Sreedharan, Dr. S.S Bloeria and Dr. Ashok Bhan, all of whom are members of the Shrine Board.
Several years ago the Shrine Board had decided to setup a Super-Specialty Hospital at Kakryal for providing high standard medical care to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Recognizing the challenges involved in managing the operations of a large hospital, the Shrine Board Chairman, N.N Vohra had asked the CEO to explore the possibility of the Shrine Board entering into a meaningful partnership on PPP basis with a well known Health Care Service Provider in the Country for collaborative operation of the hospital. Shrine Board approved of this approach and the Governor had set up a Committee of the Board to identify a partner. After an extensive exercise the Shrine Board decided that negotiations should be undertaken to establish a long term partnership with Narayana Hrudayalaya Private Limited, a reputed Bangalore based Healthcare Chain which runs 27 well known hospitals all over the country.
To achieve this objective a Committee of Board Members was set up under the Chairmanship of Dr. E. Sreedharan, with Dr. S.S. Bloeria and Sudha Murthy as its members. The Shrine Board, at its Meeting held on 29th July 2014 accepted the recommendations of the Sreedharan Committee and the draft Concession Agreement prepared by it. This decision cleared the way for this hospital project, on which the Shrine Board has already incurred an expenditure of about Rs. 200 crore, becoming operational within a year.
The Governor observed that as per the discussions carried out with Narayana Hrudayalaya he expected this hospital to develop into an excellent institution which shall provide the highest quality services to the people of J&K. He advised Dr. M.K. Bhandari, CEO, to also commence time bound steps for a Medical College and a Nursing College being set up in the vicinity of the hospital campus and for both these institutions to admit the fresh batches of students in 2018.
Dr. Bhandari, CEO of the Shrine Board explained that all necessary steps for operationalizing the hospital are nearing completion and it is planned to be commissioned in October, 2015, during the Navratra period. He informed that this 230 bedded hospital shall have more than 20 different streams of medicine and surgery, which shall include cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, neurology, neuro-surgery, nephrology, urology, oncology, pulmonology, bone-marrow transplant, gastroenterology, orthopaedics, trauma-medicine, paediatrics and neonatology, obstetrics and gynaecology.
