MCD CT scan and MRI rates will be 20% below Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) rates at three major civic hospitals in Delhi after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s Standing Committee approved a 10-year public-private partnership project for the diagnostic services.
The subsidised services will be available to patients visiting Hindu Rao Hospital, Swami Dayanand Hospital and Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis. The project is intended to expand access to costly diagnostic tests for poor and economically vulnerable patients using facilities within the municipal hospital network.
According to the MCD, the project is estimated to cost approximately Rs 120 crore over 10 years. The expenditure will include around Rs 40 crore in capital investment for installing the machines and completing related works, along with nearly Rs 80 crore in operating expenses.
Under the approved arrangement, a contracted private agency will bear the full project cost. The MCD will provide the space for the facilities, while ownership of the hospital premises will remain with the civic body. The arrangement is designed to add diagnostic capacity without requiring the corporation to make the entire capital and operating investment from its own budget.
The project will provide at least three 128-slice CT scan machines and three 1.5-tesla MRI machines across the three hospitals. It will also include a Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving and Communication System, known as RIS/PACS, for digital reporting and the management of diagnostic records.
The civic body said in a press release that expanding CT scan and MRI services at the hospitals would make modern diagnostic facilities more accessible and help patients obtain essential medical tests at lower costs. The arrangement will also create a common digital system for storing and managing radiology reports within the participating facilities.
Satya Sharma, chairperson of the MCD Standing Committee, said the corporation’s objective was to provide modern healthcare services at affordable rates to ordinary Delhi residents, particularly patients from economically weaker sections. She said the project would allow patients at the three hospitals to access advanced diagnostic facilities at reduced prices and strengthen the corporation’s healthcare infrastructure.
The approval places private-sector investment at the centre of the proposed expansion, while the MCD retains control of the hospital premises. The available announcement does not specify the implementation date, the private agency selected for the project, the patient-volume targets or the process through which eligible patients will access the reduced rates. These details will determine how quickly the approved capacity becomes available to patients.
