The facility was built in a record time of 12 days by Defence Research and Development Organisation, DRDO along with Home Ministry, Health Ministry, the Armed Forces, Tata Sons and other industry players. The Ministers were also accompanied by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy.
The Defence Minister expressed satisfaction after visiting the hospital. He appreciated the efforts of stakeholders in building this facility in such a short span of time. The national capital is currently experiencing a surge in number of COVID-19 infections with an increasing number of patients requiring medical care.
An urgent need to augment the existing hospital beds capacity of Delhi for the COVID-19 patients was discussed between Home and Defence Ministries on the modalities of deploying a one thousand bed hospital in a span of less than 14 days. Talking to reporters, Defence Minister said, more than 250 Intensive Care Units are available in this centre. Mr Singh said, all the guidlines of World Health Organization are being followed in this hospital.
The DRDO was asked to establish the hospital. It undertook the design, development and operationalisation of the facility on a war footing. With the permission from the Indian Air Force, land situated near the New Delhi Domestic Airport Terminal T1 was identified and construction work by DRDO commenced on the 23rd of June.