New Delhi : Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, was taken off ventilator support on Sunday morning, and according to a health update, spoke with members of his family.

"Prime Minister Singh spent an uneventful night following the surgery. He talked to his family this morning. The doctors attending on him say that he is stable, comfortable and is making rapid progress," a PMO statement said.

The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, also called on him to enquire about his well-being.

Earlier, Dr Ramakant Panda, a specialist of Mumbai''s Asian Heart Institute, who led the team of doctors during the surgery, informed that he is conscious and "doing fine" now.

He further said that the Prime Minister would need to be in the ICCU for about three days followed by a minimum of four days of hospitalisation.

Singh is expected to resume some part of his duties within two weeks but it will take six weeks for him to recover fully.

According to AIIMS cardio thoracic centre chief Dr Sampath Kumar, the Prime Minister simply said, "I am ready" to doctors before being wheeled into the operation theatre at 6.40 am. The surgery began at 8.45 am and the he was moved to the ICCU at 8.55pm after receiving five bypasses.

Singh''s personal physician Dr. K S Reddy described him as a "tranquil, calm and composed" person.

The bypass procedure took time as the Prime Minister''s old grafts had got clogged again.

He has earlier faced cardiac bypass surgery in 1990 and an angioplasty in 2004.

Dr Sampath Kumar said, "One reason why the Prime Minister opted for an immediate surgery was he wanted to be ready and fully active well before the elections."

Dr. Manmohan Singh was admitted in the All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Saturday, where an angiography-X-ray examination of the blood vessels was conducted on him. He also underwent several blood chemistry tests, CT scan and ECG, which have affirmed arterial blockages in the heart. (ANI)