The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is planning to construct a state-of-the-art 300-bed hospital at Taljai Hills, Dhankawadi, to boost healthcare facilities for residents in the surrounding areas.
According to an official communication issued by the Health Department, a budgetary provision of ₹1 crore has been made for 2025-26 for the project. The proposal envisions the creation of a modern maternity hospital and children’s hospital on survey numbers 67 to 73 at Taljai.
Health officials stated that once operational, the hospital will provide major relief to poor and needy patients, ensuring access to advanced medical care closer to home. Given the large scale of the project, PMC is also exploring financial assistance from the State Government to meet the overall construction cost. The Building Department has been asked to prepare a detailed estimate and hospital plan in consultation with architects.
However, residents and activists criticise the civic body for its decision to build a new 300-bed hospital at Taljai, despite being unable to efficiently operate the 16 hospitals it has already constructed across the city.
Vivek Velankar, a social activist, pointed out that crores of rupees have been spent on these existing hospitals, only for the civic body to later hand them over fully or partially to private institutions due to its inability to manage them.
Velankar further highlighted that major private hospitals in the city, including Ruby Hall, Sahyadri (Karve Road) and KEM Institute, were granted additional FSI (0.5) by PMC on the condition that they reserve 19 beds daily (12 at Ruby Hall, five at Sahyadri and two at KEM) for patients recommended by the corporation. However, the civic body has failed to utilize even 5% of this reserved capacity.
“In such a situation, the decision to invest taxpayers’ money in a new hospital raises doubts. It appears this move might ultimately benefit private institutions rather than citizens,” Velankar alleged.
The activists are demanding that, along with the tender committee, the civic chief set up a separate monitoring committee to oversee PMC’s Health Department. They also demanded that no capital investment be made without the committee’s approval.
"There is a real need to control the careless functioning of the Health Department. Through my work in health movements, I interact with health departments in various cities, but nowhere have I seen such careless functioning as in Pune,” said health activist Deepak Jadhav.
