In 1900, an American doctor, Dr. Ida Scudder, started a one-room dispensary in Vellore, Tamil Nadu. A few years later, she started a medical training program to train Indian women to treat women. This was the beginning of the Christian Medical College Vellore. Today, Christian Medical College operates 4 hospital campuses with more than 2,500 beds and a staff of 1200 doctors and has earned a worldwide reputation for state-of-the-art medical treatment and research.
More than 15 years ago, CMC concluded that their campus in Vellore was full and they needed to start a new hospital campus to meet the growing demand for medical training, research, and treatment. After years of planning, CMC broke ground for the new hospital campus at Kannigapuram (7 km. from Vellore) in Dec. 2016. Construction was to take two years. EMI joined the project in 2017 for project management consultancy. Changes in the building code, allowed CMC to add an additional 6th and 7th story to the main blocks, but that required a halt in construction until the architectural and structural design could be completed.
Then in March 2020, COVID hit India and construction was shut down for 2 months and the 1200 construction workers all left the site. But 3 floors of the general ward building were complete enough that they were opened up for COVID patients. It took nearly 6 months to re-hire construction workers and get the project up and running again after that first COVID wave. Completion was re-scheduled for June 2021, but in April the 2nd wave of COVID hit Tamil Nadu and construction was stopped again. The 2nd floor ICU rooms had been completed and were added to the 3 floors of ward rooms to care for COVID patients. Construction restarted in July and the new hospital campus was completed in December 2021 – 5 years after construction was started!
The new CMC teaching and speciality hospital in Kannigapuram is made up of 4 main blocks that are 9 stories each (incl. basement). All buildings are interconnected on each floor by way of a “main street” corridor to provide better access to all parts of the one million sq. ft. complex. The hospital has 33 operating theatres and will eventually have 1500 inpatient beds. Twelve CMC speciality medical departments will be moving into the new building where most departments will have their consultation rooms, treatment facilities, and inpatient beds on the same level of the building. In addition to the main complex, there are 8 additional support buildings for utilities, engineering staff, boilers, MGPS, central receiving, laundry, mortuary, STP, and canteen. While not a certified “green” building, the new hospital is a 0% offsite wastewater project, supplies all of its water from wells on site, and has installed 2,000 KW of solar panels that will provide up to 40% of the power needs of the hospital.
The new CMC Kannigapuram Hospital is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2022.
Project Manager, EMI India