Bengaluru's largest COVID Care Centre at BIEC to shut due to lack of demand

The facility, which was touted to be the largest one planned in the country, was inaugurated on July 27.
BIEC CCC
BIEC CCC
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The Karnataka government on Saturday night announced that the COVID Care Centre (CCC) set up at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) will be shut down from September 15. The facility, which was touted to be the largest one planned in the country was ceremoniously inaugurated on July 27 and is now being shut down as most patients are opting for home isolation, rather than going for institutional setups.

In a press note, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said that they discussed the issue with the Chief Minister as suggested by Rajendra Kataria, senior IAS officer in-charge of these facilities.

A delegation of ministers led by Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan and senior bureaucrats had inaugurated it with the option of increasing the total tally of beds to 10,100. The facility on the first day had 5,500 beds. Now these beds will be sent to government institutions, university hostels and public hospitals.

Earlier in August, Rajendra Kataria told TNM even when they were expecting a demand for the government-run CCCs, they had decided not to expand the number of beds in BIEC. He had then said that the idea behind not expanding BIEC is to allow businesses to open up as quickly as possible when they can. Instead, he said the government was targeting idle facilities like school and college hostels which were lying vacant and untapped medical and paramedical college facilities.

The facility had also got its fair share of controversy with the government accused of indulging in corruption over procurement of essentials for the facility.

The issue had led to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa himself examining the purchases and subsequently ordering officials to procure the items needed for the centre instead of leasing them on a rental basis. While the cost for leasing the equipment was Rs 24 crore, buying them cost only Rs 4.23 crore.

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