Mumbai: BMC-appointed agency to manage 1,700-bed Jumbo Covid Care Centre

The new Kanjurmarg Jumbo Covid Centre. Pic/Anurag Ahire

The 1,700-bed Kanjurmarg Jumbo Covid Care Centre is ready for use and has been handed over to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) by CIDCO authorities. The civic body has appointed an agency for the management of the facility. Civic officials said no public money is being used yet, as work orders have not been allotted.

Interestingly, this is not the case just for the Kanjurmarg facility. This mode of management will be replicated in Malad and Sion Covid Jumbo Centres as well as the newly constructed Dahisar centre. BMC had called for private players/hospitals to come forward and take up the responsibility to manage these facilities. These centres, however, are yet to be operational. The ICU facility at BKC Covid Jumbo Centre and Phase II of the NESCO grounds, too, have been outsourced. The Kanjurmarg centre will be run as an extension of a private hospital.

While the Malad facility has been up and ready since the past two months, the Kanjurmarg one was inaugurated on Friday and the Sion one is likely to be ready by the end of this month. Civic officials said around 20,000 beds will be available across all the Jumbo Centres, in addition to around 10,000 beds at the dedicated hospitals for Covid treatment. In view of this, they added, citizens should not panic even if Covid-19 cases are on the rise. However, going by the task force's estimates, daily cases will remain way below 10,000.

Meanwhile, Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said the tender documents for these centres were worded such that it allows partial operation, and thus even payments will be done in a phased manner. While this is feared to lead to last minute chaos, civic officials have taken their chances instead of paying higher amounts.

Explaining the move, Kakani said, "We have appointed the private players but have not yet given work orders as it will be given whenever the need arises. Currently, we have not activated the new centres as the Covid cases are manageable and these centres will be made operational if and when the rise in cases is noticed. For the first time, we are trying a new strategy where we will be operating these centres partially and releasing payments also in parts, instead of wasting public money. Because it should not be like we operate the entire facility but hardly half of it is occupied. So, we will give them work orders depending on the cases."

20k
No. of beds to be available across all jumbo centres