Bengaluru : A new thousand-bedded facility will soon come up on the Victoria Hospital premises, a move doctors believe will ease patient congestion.

With Bowring Hospital being granted the status of a medical college, the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) is now obliged to have thousand additional beds for its hospitals to meet the requirement as per the mandate of the Medical Council of India.

The medical college needs 1,000 more beds to match the 250 undergraduate and 280 postgraduate seats. Hence the move, according to officials.

The foundation stone for the new building, that will house these wards, will be laid on Wednesday.

Dr Ramesh T K, principal, BMCRI, said there is a proposal to have at least 30 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds on one of the floors of the multi-storeyed building.

The structure will come up next to the existing Victoria Hospital building at an estimated cost of Rs 68 crore. An official in the department of medical education said that the building will be ready in 18 months.

Dr Ramesh said the department of medicine, which sees a heavy footfall of patients, is in maximum need of beds. Even as there is a proposal, he said the bed allocation for each department will be finalised in the academic council meet to be convened soon.

“There is also a plan to have a modular OT in one of the floors. Besides, we are hoping that one floor will have special wards,” he said. Doctors at Victoria Hospital hope the new wing will also ease the burden of the Trauma and Emergency Centre. The new building will also house ICU beds, in addition to the trauma centre.