Ahmedabad: Wings of VS Hospital building to be razed

AHMEDABAD: After toying with the idea for almost three years, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) finally plans to demolish two wings of the historic VS Hospital, Sardar Vallabhbhai’s Patel’s only public project in the city. It was for this 91-year-old hospital that Sardar Patel had personally approached citizens for land, in the interests of the city’s poor.
For now, a tender was floated on June 6 for demolition of the Sheth Chinai Nursing Home, the wing of the main building. Demolition work will begin by mid-July, during the monsoon.
In all, AMC plans to demolish nine unused smaller blocks with a carpet area of 4,769 square metres, including the nursing home. Initially, there were plans to operate a 500-bed hospital in the old building.
Now, with the demolition, approximately 45,000 sq m will be open for redevelopment. A new seven-storied VS hospital building is coming up at the cost of Rs 180 cr at the same place. AMC officials say about 20,000 sq metres will be available for parking alone.
As of now, a portion of the main heritage building will remain untouched, said a senior AMC official. The civic body will demolish 1,554.5 square metres on the ground floor, a similar area on the first floor, 1,027.24 square metres on the second floor and 632.82 square metres on the third floor.
The tender for the demolition has been floated out by the West Zone of the AMC. West Zone town development officer (TDO) Hitendra Makwana said, “The plan for demolition of the 4,700 square metres has been released by the AMC.”
The hospital was established in 1931 through the efforts of the Sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhi’s vision. In it, the Sheth Chinai Nursing Home began with 120 beds and went on to become a 1,155 bed hospital by 2018. In 2019, when the multi-storied SVP Hospital became operational on the same campus, the AMC decided to continue with just 500 beds in the old building. That was also put on hold.