India, Oct. 11 -- Unmoved by allegations of betrayal and public outrage, the civic administration is pressing ahead with its controversial plan to privatise key health services in Mumbai's municipal hospitals, a move many see as an abdication of its public duty.

Calling it a "Civic Health Collaboration", a more benign rebranding of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) has floated tenders for the privatisation of services in nine of its 16 peripheral hospitals.

Contracts will be awarded to private operators for up to 30 years to run key healthcare services such as dialysis, ECG, sonography, the full range of cardiology and cath lab facilities, MRI and CT scans, and even blood banks fo...