Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who has undergone a tracheostomy, is showing slow but steady progress and attending doctors at AIIMS are hopeful that ventilatory support may be taken off by this evening.

"He is OK. Progress is slow but he is going to recover. Pneumonia is under control," Dr Sampath Kumar, chief of Cardio Thoracic Vascular Sciences Department at the hospital, said.