Bengaluru: 40 days after launch, controversial BIEC Covid centre to shut

BENGALURU: Just 40 days after the controversy-ridden 10,000-bed Covid Care Centre at BIEC in Bengaluru opened, the BBMP on Sunday decided to shut it down owing to revised asymptomatic patient care protocol and lack of patients wanting to get admitted to care centres outside city limits.
BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said, “There was a sudden drop in the demand for BIEC (Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, on Tumakuru Road) care centre as norms were changed for asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases. More people are opting for home quarantine. Running the care centre is too expensive and a waste of public money.”

In the next one week, BIEC and three other care centres (including a 600-bed one at Gandhi Krishi Vikas Kendra) will be shuttered, besides the three shut last week, a senior bureaucrat said, calling them white elephants.
After next week, only six care centres, including a 200-bed one to be established, will function. The BBMP has given the BIEC care centre time till September 15 to wind down its operations and transfer patients to other CCCs in the city.
‘Agri, horticulture varsities to pick up 2k bed sets’
The BIEC care centre had run into controversy after the state decided to procure all material required for the entire setup on rent by spending Rs 800 a day for bed sets. After CM Yediyurappa stepped in, the government decided to, instead, purchase the same.
Now, with the centre shutting down permanently, the procurement costs may be considered a loss to the state exchequer. The state had spent about Rs 8 crore for purchase of material. To salvage the situation, the government has accelerated its plans to hand over the bed sets to government institutions, primarily hostels run by the state government.
“We had purchased seven items for the BIEC, including beds, cots, table fan, plastic chairs and a side table. These will now be reallocated to government hostels. The other 21 items rented out will be returned,” said Prasad, BBMP commissioner.
IAS officer Rajendra Kumar Kataria, in charge of CCCs, said orders have been issued to agriculture and horticulture universities to pick up 2,000 bed sets on Monday. Some of them have not been unwrapped as patients at that centre were few.
“There is no loss since we are giving these cots and bed sets to government hostels, including agriculture, horticulture and SC/ST community hostels. For, most institutions are autonomous without much government aid and have to generate internal revenue for buying the same products,” said Kataria.