Mahatma Mandir — the venue for iconic business congregation — Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit — is set to be converted into Covid hospital in Gandhiangar.
This follows the announcement made by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah to set up 1,200-bed Covid-19 hospital in the State capital, as new cases continued to mount overwhelming the existing hospital infrastructure.
“It will be a dedicated Covid Hospital at Mahatma Mandir with 1200-beds capacity, as per the announcement. Final decisions are being worked out at government level regarding operational aspects among others,” a senior official told BusinessLine. Earlier the hospital was planned to be set up at the exhibition ground near helipad area in Gandhinagar, but authorities decided to change the site to Mahatma Mandir, which is centrally airconditioned and equipped with basic amenities.
The official informed that the work is in full swing anticipating the hospital to start admitting Covid patients as soon as possible. “All wings of the government are putting their best to operationalise this hospital at the earliest,” the official informed.
Beds & cost
As per the announcement made by the Union Home Minister during his visit to Gandhinagar on April 23, the 1,200-bed hospital will have 600 ICU beds, while its costs will be borne by Tata Trusts.
Last month, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) had also written to Gujarat Chief Minister suggesting him to convert Mahatma Mandir into a Covid hospital.
Already, a 900-bed Covid facility has been set up with the help of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Ahmedabad.
It was necessary to augment additional bed capacities as existing hospitals ran short of beds specifically with oxygen and ICU bed facilities.
Caseload
On Monday, Gujarat reported 11,592 new cases and 117 deaths taking the total fatalities to 8,511 due to the deadly virus. The active cases in the State stood at 1,36,158 as on Monday.
The spread of the infection in the rural areas was alarming as 24 out of 33 districts in the State reported at least 100 cases each. Ahmedabad city reported 3194 new cases, Surat 823, Vadodara 751, Jamnagar and Rajkot reported 333 and 319 cases on Monday.