Union Cabinet approves setting up of AIIMS in Kamrup, Assam

The Union Cabinet, presided by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 24 May 2017 gave its approval for the establishment of new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Kamrup in Assam.

The institute will be set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). The estimated cost of the project is Rs.1123 crore.

The new AIIMS will be completed in a period of 48 months from the date of the approval of Government of India. The pre-construction phase would be of 15 months, while a construction phase would be of 30 months. The stabilization/commissioning phase of would be of three months.

The establishment of AIIMS at Kamrup will serve the dual purpose of providing super speciality health care to the population while also help create a large pool of doctors and other health workers in the region.

Key highlights of the new AIIMS

• The new AIIMS will consist of a hospital with a capacity of 750 beds and trauma center facilities.

• The medical college will have a capacity of intake of 100 MBBS students per year, nursing college with an intake of 60 B.Sc. (Nursing) students per year.

• It will also comprise residential complexes and allied facilities/services, broadly on the pattern of AIIMS, New Delhi.

• The hospital will have 22 Speciality/Super-Speciality Departments including 16 Operation Theatres.

• It will also have an AYUSH department with 30 beds for providing treatment facilities in traditional system of medicine.

About Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana

• The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana aims at correcting the imbalances in the availability of affordable healthcare facilities in the different parts of the country in general.

• It also seeks to augment facilities for quality medical education in the under-served States in particular.

• The scheme was approved in March 2006.

• The first phase in the PMSSY has two components: setting up of six institutions in the line of AIIMS, and upgradation of 13 existing Government medical college institutions.

• Under this scheme, AIIMS have been established in Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Raipur, Jodhpur, Rishikesh and Patna while work of AIIMS Rae Bareli is in progress. Also, three AIIMS in Nagpur, Maharashtra, Kalyani, West Bengal and Mangalagiri in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh have been sanctioned in 2015 and two AIIMS have been sanctioned at Bathinda and Gorakhpur in 2016.