Ahmedabad: Construction of 1,800-bed hospital hits wall of ‘faith'

Indian Express

5 hours ago

On May 27 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his two-day trip to Gujarat, laid the foundation stone of an 1,800-bed hospital inside the Medicity campus in Ahmedabad, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 588 crore. Almost two months later, the project has hit a hurdle even before even the plans could be finalised.
Standing in the way of the expansion and modernisation of the largest public sector healthcare campus on India's western seaboard, is a temple, whose priest has claimed that the 'goddess has refused to give up the space'.
The priest at the temple of Khodiyar Mata, a local deity, claims that it has been there since pre-Independence and has become an 'intersection of science and faith and a major landmark for those lost in the sprawling campus'.
A constant stream of devotees, including relatives of patients admitted to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and those from the neighbourhood, flock to the temple that has recently repainted saffron from the outside, with its sanctum containing multiple idols of Khodiyar Mata, dotted with blue tiles which have not been changed for several years now — also 'as per the wishes of the mother,' priest Sandeep Thakurbhai Dave tells The Indian Express.
The temple, located at the centre of the Medicity campus has also become a geolocation as people are given directions with the temple as a point of reference.
The civil hospital in the Asarwa area of Ahmedabad recently saw a huge influx of visitors from all over the world, when it turned into a nodal centre for families of victims after a London-bound AI 171 crashed minutes after taking off from Ahmedabad, into the BJ Medical College hostel next to the temple.
The hospital took charge of the DNA investigations of the severely charred bodies of the 241 aboard and 19 on-ground who died, handing them out to their relatives. The deceased included some of the hospital's own students and staffers.
Now, the old post-mortem building, which connects through a skyway to the main hospital building, the area between the old trauma centre till the Superintendent's office (admin block) is to be demolished to free some 1.60 lakh square metres of space for the 1,800-bed hospital with an OPD section and a 150-bed ICU to eliminate waiting for beds. There will be a 50-bed isolation ward and several modular operation theatres and a two-storied parking block, which will accommodate 650 cars and 1,000 two-wheelers.
The civil hospital is spread over a 108 acre space that includes several super speciality facilities.
The Khodiyar Mata temple, located right opposite to the old post-mortem building, is also among those marked for demolition. The plan was to relocate the temple in an alternate space inside the hospital campus, if the authorities agreed.
The construction of this new hospital building will not only take the total bed capacity of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital to 4,200 beds, but will also double its ICU capacity from the current 150 to 300 beds. Most importantly, the OPD blocks will be moved to the prospective 10-storey building.
On July 13, a video of Dr Rakesh Joshi, Medical Superintendent of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, went viral where he was seen praying and performing rituals at this temple. Dr Joshi had later clarified in a video that he had gone to discuss with temple officials possible ways to proceed with the development 'in a way that faith is not compromised'.
'I went and explained the project to them. I suggested that we must co-operate to make sure that this hospital is built so that several poor patients receive the benefit of treatment', he said in the video.
Dr Joshi later told The Indian Express, 'I tried to reach out to the temple to find a consensual path forward. However, they have refused to relocate the temple. A decision will now be taken by higher officials.'
Notably, the buildings marked for demolition are already being evacuated and stopgap measures are being taken in other parts of the hospital campus. Most importantly, the labs and central stores have already been relocated and the rest of the buildings will be cleared soon, said Dr Joshi.
Temple priest Dave told this paper: 'Hospital officials told us that if they don't move the temple, then they will lose space for 300 beds, but this temple was here even before the hospital was built.' Claiming that the deity had 'not allowed' a previous construction project decades earlier because the temple had been removed in the 1950's, Dave said, 'Mataji had destroyed the incomplete construction seven times. The mother then told my ancestor, who was then the pujari here, that he would find her idol buried where her small temple once stood. And true enough, the top half of this idol was found there,' he says, pointing to a smaller idol next to the main one of the deity that is kept on a wooden stool. 'It was only after the temple was restored that this hospital was built,' he adds.
When asked about the current predicament, the priest said, 'The hospital administration approached us about the construction of the new hospital a couple of months ago and we have had several conversations about it. But when we asked Mataji if she permitted the relocation of the temple, she refused not once but multiple times.'
Dave claimed that the hospital superintendent's visit on Sunday was part of his 'seeking clearance' from the Goddess for the project.
'He (Dr Joshi) came at 9 am and we first asked him to pray for what he wished to seek from Mataji and told him that we would look for her answer. If she agrees even twice, that means she has given permission,' the priest claimed, adding that they performed a temple ritual to seek the Goddess's 'consent' — but it was 'negative'.
Dave said they had not received any communication from the hospital administration after Sunday's ritual.