AMRI Hospital promoters lose Rs 4 crore every month

Emami and Shrachi, the promoters of Kolkata-based AMRI Hospital, are taking a monthly hit of Rs 4 crore due to the hospital's closure. The 370-bed hospital in Dhakuria was closed following a fire in December 2011 that claimed over 90 lives.

"We have lost lot of money on the hospital. We continue to pay salaries to all employees and incur interest costs", said Aditya Agarwal, Director, Emami. The South Kolkata based hospital has over 700 employees. Emami has a majority stake in AMRI Hospitals which it co-founded with the Shrachi Group in 1996. Agarwal said AMRI is going slow on health-care expansion plans after the incident. AMRI has operational hospitals in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.

A fire broke out in the basement of the annexe building in the early hours of December 9, 2011. The smoke from the fire spread through AC ducts to the top floors of the seven floor air conditioned hospital to engulf the building. After the incident, several of Emami directors, including the two Co-Chairmen -R. S. Agarwal and R. S. Goenka were arrested and they remained behind bars for about four months. S. K. Todi of Shrachi Group was also arrested. They all were charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The case is being heard in the city's Alipore Court.

AMRI Dhakuria has two hospitals within the same complex. Fire had broken out in the 200-bed facility at the rear (annexe) that got ravaged while the 170 bed hospital in the main building was not affected. However, this was also closed down when the fire-affected portion was sealed.

Licences of the Hospital were cancelled following the fire. In December 2013, the outpatient department of the Hospital was reopened after it got clearance from the government. The management is in process of seeking clearances and licences from the departments of fire and health in the West Bengal government to restart the hospitalization facility. The hospital had been catering to a large section of upper middle class population of South Kolkata.