The 76-year-old Prime Minister "is doing fine now. He is conscious. He also met his family and congratulated all doctors," Dr Ramakant Panda, a specialist of Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute, who led the team of doctors during the surgery, said.

Satisfied with Singh's ‘improving condition’, the doctors have also withdrawn ventilator, he said.

"Ventilator has been taken off and he is breathing on his own. This is an important step," Panda said.

A PMO statement said Singh had an ‘uneventful night’ following his surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.

"Doctors attending on the Prime Minister say that he is stable, comfortable and is making rapid progress," it said.

Panda, who is a specialist in 're-do by-pass' surgery, said, "We are monitoring the important parameters like his pulse, blood pressure, temperature and urine output.

"We have also tried to find out the pressure in the lungs through a tube called Swanganz. We are also ensuring that there is no post-operative bleeding and we have found that bleeding has stopped," he said.

The Prime Minister is expected to be in the ICU for three days and spend about seven to eight days in the hospital.

The 11-member team from the AHI, Mumbai, had on Saturday performed the over 11-hour-long operation on the Prime Minister. The team included three more doctors and several support staff.

Patients' relatives pray for PM at AIIMS

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recuperates after a successful 11-hour-long coronary by-pass surgery, relatives of the patients admitted at the Cardio Thoracic Centre (CTC) are praying for his early recovery.

Relatives of patients who are admitted to the Neuro Sciences Centre and CTC, the same facility where the Prime Minister is admitted, have kept portraits of different gods in the waiting hall praying Singh's early recovery.

"I have been at this place for the last three days as my niece is undergoing treatment for Brain Tumour. As I pray for her to the gods, I do the same for the Prime Minister," Abhishek Sharma, who hails from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, said.

As only one attendant is allowed to remain with each patient, a number of relatives are taking rest at the waiting hall.

"We have been reading in the newspaper about the preparations and the complications of the Prime Minister's health. It becomes our duty as citizens to pray for him," Shubha Rawat, relative of a patient, who has come from Yawatmal in Maharashtra, said.

The waiting hall has a capacity of 120 people and is situated next to the CTC where the Prime Minister is recuperating.

These people also lit up 'agarbatti' (incence sticks) in the morning and pray for the Prime Minister's good health along with their dear ones.

"The Prime Minister is a good man and this is evident from the fact that he is undergoing treatment at the same hospital where general public is," Alka Khatri, whose son is admitted in the Neuro Sciences Centre, said.

During nights, the AIIMS public address system occasionally crackle to call relatives inside the main building so that they can attend to their ailing relatives.

The security personnel who are guiding the Prime Minister also interact with these people.