850-Bed Command Hospital

Command Hospital (Northern Command) at Udhampur is an 850-bed tertiary-care hospital on a 60-acre campus in the hills of Jammu and Kashmir. Around the main hospital are the homes, messes, welfare buildings and services that a hospital of this size needs, 32 building components in all. The campus was completed in May 2025.

Under the dome

In the hills of Udhampur the hospital announces itself from the road: a ceremonial portico, and above it a glazed dome that tells every visitor where the centre is. Step through and you are under that dome, in a circular atrium that rises the full height of the building, ringed by galleries and lit from above. At its centre a bronze globe stands on a polished stone floor inlaid with a compass star. For a soldier's family arriving in need of care, it is a calm place to get their bearings before clear routes lead out into the wings.

Portico and dome

The architecture aims for permanence, dignity and clarity. A ceremonial entrance portico marks the point of arrival, and a central glazed dome rises over the heart of the hospital, so that visitors can recognise the centre of the building at a glance. Deep-set openings, restrained glazing and durable exterior finishes give the building a composed character and respond to Udhampur's climate.

Clear routes inside

The main hospital has a basement, a ground floor and four upper floors, about 70,000 square metres of the campus’s 87,500. It holds specialised clinical departments, nine major operating theatres and one minor, diagnostic services, a central sterile services department and a medical laundry. Because a hospital like this runs day and night, the plan sets out clear hierarchies of movement, with legible routes for patients, medical staff, visitors, emergency services and supplies.

Under the dome

Beneath the dome, a circular atrium rises through the full height of the hospital, ringed by galleries on each floor and lit from above. At its centre, a bronze globe stands on a polished stone floor inlaid with a compass star, a calm point of orientation at the meeting of the hospital’s wings.

One connected community

Beyond the hospital, the master plan includes messes, residential accommodation, guest suites, a religious institute, welfare amenities, a family welfare centre, workshops and service buildings. They are planned as one connected community within landscaped grounds rather than as isolated blocks. The result is measured and orderly, a setting meant to reassure the people who arrive in need of care.

ARCH-EN DESIGN was awarded the work by the Military Engineer Services on 15 September 2006. The scope covered the Master Plan of the 60-acre campus and full consultancy for its buildings: architectural drawings, RCC structural design, plumbing, electrical, air-conditioning, fire fighting, lifts, data cabling, medical gases, the CSSD, medical laundry and hospital kitchen, landscape, detailed specifications and bills of quantities, and site supervision. The MES certified the work complete on 9 May 2025, at a project cost of about ₹358 crore.