Richa PintoMumbai: Nearly two months after the BMC Improvement Committee sent back a proposal seeking to hand over the sprawling SevenHills Hospital campus at Marol to Capri Global Ventures Pvt Ltd, the civic administration has returned with the proposal. The Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress had opposed the proposal and questioned the timing, transparency and terms of the move. The proposal was not rejected, but was returned to the administration for reconsideration following a heated discussion in the committee meeting.Capri Global, which emerged as the successful resolution applicant for SevenHills Healthcare Pvt Ltd (SHPL) under the insolvency process, will receive equity-based support from Reliance Foundation, which manages H N Reliance Hospital in Girgaum.The proposal authorises the execution of a fresh lease deed with SHPL, now under Capri Global’s ownership, allowing the hospital to continue under the original public-private partnership (PPP) model. It provides for a 30-year lease, extendable by another 30 years, for nearly 66,688 sq m of BMC land at Marol, Andheri (East), where the hospital is located.The SevenHills Hospital project was awarded in 2004 under a PPP model, with the concessionaire required to construct and operate a 1,300-bed hospital while reserving 20% of beds and OPD services for BMC-referred patients. However, only 306 beds became operational. In 2018, the BMC issued a show-cause notice for terminating the agreement, alleging the concessionaire had defaulted on ₹140.88 crore in lease rent and property tax and had failed to provide the agreed services to civic patients.The dispute subsequently went through insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and the Supreme Court. Capri Global later emerged as the successful resolution applicant, with the NCLT approving its resolution plan, making it the new shareholder of SHPL.Under the approved resolution plan, SevenHills Hospital will be redeveloped as a 1,500-bed not-for-profit tertiary care hospital. The new promoter has agreed to honour the conditions of the original 2005 contract and the 2013 memorandum of understanding, including reserving 20% of operational beds—300 beds—and 20% of OPD services for BMC patients, with treatment, medicines and diagnostic tests provided at civic rates.The proposal also states that the original PPP agreement and memorandum of understanding were never formally terminated. “Consequently, the civic body will execute a fresh lease deed reflecting the revised ownership structure so that it can be placed before the NCLT and other judicial forums, wherever required,” states the proposal.Civic officials said the revival of SevenHills Hospital is expected to significantly augment Mumbai’s public healthcare infrastructure by bringing a long-defunct mega hospital back into operation while preserving the quota of subsidised treatment for BMC patients under the PPP model.
