The facility was being used to shelter migrant workers until recently (File)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today inspected the newly operational COVID-19 facility - billed to be the biggest in the world - in the national capital's Chhatarpur area. The facility, named Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre and Hospital, started functioning on Friday with 2,000 beds and health staff from paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
Both the leaders were seen having a close look at the health infrastructure inside the premises. They also talked to senior officials supervising the functioning of the hospital.
Last week, Mr Kejriwal had invited Mr Shah to visit the sprawling facility, which is built on spiritual centre Radha Soami Beas's property. He had also demanded that health staff from the Army and ITBP should be deployed to take care of COVID-19 patients there.
Mr Shah, in a swift response, had said on Twitter that the Centre had already agreed to his demands at a meeting. He had promised that the facility will be running by June 26.
"Dear Kejriwal Ji, it has already been decided in our meeting 3 days back and the MHA has assigned the work of operating the 10,000-bed COVID Care Centre at Radha Swami Beas in Delhi to ITBP. The work is in full swing and a large part of the facility will be operational by 26th June," he had tweeted.
The Delhi government, which was grappling with shortage of COVID-19 beds amid a spurt of coronavirus cases, had said that the spiritual centre will have 10,000 beds when it is fully operational. The facility has a covered area of 12,50,000 square feet, as large as 22 football fields, with preinstalled fans and CCTV cameras. It will have nearly 200 enclosures with 50 beds each.
The facility was being used to shelter migrant workers until recently. Its community kitchens are semi-industrial and can feed thousands of people at a time.
The facility will have two segments - Covid Care Centre (CCC), where asymptomatic positive cases will be treated, and Dedicated Covid Health Care (DCHC). The CCC will have 90 percent beds while DCHC will have 10 per cent, news agency PTI reported.
Around 2,000 ITBP and Central Armed Police Force personnel, including doctors and health staff, will run the COVID centre.
With inputs from PTI