HC directs civic body to grant water connection to PGI’s neuro centre

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Municipal Corporation to grant a temporary water connection to PGIMER’s 300-in-patients bed Advanced Neurosciences Centre within three working days.

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The direction, expected to enable the long-delayed facility to finally become operational, came after the Bench was apprised that the Advanced Neurosciences Centre—complete with a 36-bed neurosurgery ICU—had been ready since September 2024 but has remained non-functional due to the absence of a water connection.

Appearing on PGIMER’s behalf, senior advocate Chetan Mittal with counsel Udit Garg and Shashank Shekhar informed the court that the workforce had already been employed for the facility. But it could not begin operations as mandatory permissions such as fire safety, occupation certificate, and completion certificate had also been withheld due to the pending water connection.

It was added that the Municipal Corporation refused to provide the connection citing a pending billing dispute with the contractor, Deepak Builders, who constructed the building. It demanded a no-objection certificate (NOC) before issuing the necessary approvals. In a related petition, the builder contended that an earlier petition on the same issue had led to the matter being referred to the Dispute Redressal Committee, where proceedings were still pending.

The contractor also brought to the court’s attention another dispute concerning a separate contract for the construction of a 150-bed critical care block at PGIMER. In that case, the contractor sought a tertiary water connection essential for construction and green building certification.

After hearing the contentions and going through the documents, the Bench directed the Municipal Corporation to process in a time-bound manner the tertiary water connection matter after the formalities were completed.

Taking up all the matters together, the Bench directed to the MC to grant temporary connection within three working days.

The court also asked the contractor to furnish a bank guarantee equivalent to one-third of the amount claimed by the Municipal Corporation. This, the Bench asserted, would allow the contractor’s grievance to be considered by the Dispute Redressal Committee in a time-bound manner, without further impeding the public facility’s functioning.