VARANASI: Two departments at BHU have proposed a ₹500 crore advanced cardiac centre with 400 beds at Sir Sunderlal Hospital, seeking to bring heart investigations, surgery and specialist care into a single six-storey facility.
The cardiology department and the department of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, or CTVS, have jointly prepared the proposal. Professor Siddharth Lakhotia of CTVS and Professor Vikas Agrawal of cardiology submitted it to vice-chancellor Professor Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi and IMS-BHU director Professor S.N. Sankhwar.
The proposal is an institutional request, not a confirmed construction announcement. Under the process described in the October 25 update, it would be forwarded to the Union Health Ministry after approval from the vice-chancellor. The ₹500 crore figure is the proposed cost rather than a confirmed release of funds.
Surgery and investigations in one complex
The planned centre includes modern operation theatres, catheterisation laboratories and a hybrid operation theatre. It also lists cardiac anaesthesia, robotic technology and advanced cardiac imaging among the facilities sought by the departments.
An electrophysiology study laboratory and cardiac MRI are included in the proposal. These planned facilities extend the centre’s scope beyond an increase in inpatient beds, bringing diagnostic and treatment infrastructure into the same institutional plan.
The proposal also gives specific attention to paediatric cardiology. Its stated aim is to create specialist arrangements for congenital heart disease and other cardiac conditions affecting children, alongside care for adult patients.
The list describes the facilities the departments want to develop. It does not mean those services have all begun at a new centre, nor does it establish when an individual patient could be admitted there.
Expansion intended to address waiting
The two departments together currently have fewer than 100 beds, according to the account accompanying the proposal. The proposed 400-bed centre would represent a substantial expansion from that reported combined capacity, if the plan receives approval and is implemented.
Sir Sunderlal Hospital serves patients from eastern Uttar Pradesh as well as Bihar, Jharkhand and other states. The departments’ stated objective is to improve access to comprehensive cardiac care and reduce the wait for treatment, including surgery.
Whether waiting times fall, and by how much, would depend on the completed facility, staffing and actual service capacity. The proposal does not supply a guaranteed reduction or an opening date, and existing patients should continue to follow their treating department’s instructions.
For now, the development is the submission of a joint plan joining cardiology with cardiac surgery. Its next steps concern university approval and consideration by the ministry; the proposed building, beds and specialist equipment remain part of that forward-looking request.
