India, April 25 -- To ease overcrowding at Rohini's Asha Kiran shelter home for the intellectually challenged, the Delhi government's Public Works Department (PWD) will refurbish the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) unused nursing college and Primary Health Centre (PHC) complex in Narela under a Rs.2.5 crore project.

The Asha Kiran facility came under scrutiny in August last year following the deaths of 14 residents. The Delhi High Court subsequently directed urgent measures to decongest the overcrowded home, which houses 928 residents-far above its sanctioned capacity of 570.

A PWD official said the high court had ordered MCD to hand over the Narela complex to the Delhi government to establish a second shelter. "The building requ...