After seeking proposals from the States for setting up the AIIMS-like institutes on the urgency basis, the Centre has now gone slow in giving nod to the ambitious projects aimed to ensure quality medical education and infrastructure.
Out of 13 States, which have sent proposals for setting up the prestigious institute on the lines of the AIIMS in Delhi in the past one year, the Union Health Ministry has examined proposed projects in just four States — Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
Sources in the Ministry blame it on the red-tapism within the bureaucracy as no effort was made to ensure that the projects are cleared on urgent basis despite States identifying the land for the project.
While Andhra Pradesh wants the super specialty centre to be spread over in 193 acres of land in Guntur district, 11-km away from Vijaywada, Assam has suggested three locations namely Dimoria Mouza in Kamrup (254 acres of land), Kamalpur revenue circle in Kamrup district (214 acres) and 198 acres in Shahari Mouza of Raha in Nagaon district.
Gujarat has identified project sites at Khaddheri (298.35 acres) and Khirasara (240 acres) in Rajkot and Chokari (873 acres) and Pavda (281 acres) in Vadodara for the establishment of the institution.
The Jharkhand Government wants the project to be set up at Devipur in Deoghar for which it has identified 287.89 acres of land while Arunanchal Pradesh is keen on 204 acres of land around 30-km away from Itanagar via National Highways 52 A in Papum Pare district.
Karnataka has identified Harohalli in Ramanagar district near Bengaluru, Itagatti in Dharwad district and district hospital campus in Bijapur. Similarly, Kerala has suggested the project at four sites — Thiruvananthapuram (263 acres of land) Kottayam (194.85 acres), Ernakulam (123.5 acres) and Kozhikode (154.43 acres).
The sources said that the Maharashtra Government has offered 150 acres for the project at Nagpur area saying that it is the most prominent city in the Vidarbha region.
Tamil Nadu has identified location at Chegalpattu (188 acres) in Kancheepuram district, Puddukkottai (200 acres) in Pudukkottai district, Sengipatti (2016 acres) in Thanjavur district, Perundurai (192.85 acres) in Erode district and Thoppur (198.27 acres) in Madurai district.
Newly-created Telangana Government too does not want to lag behind in the race. It has identified 223 acres of land for new AIIMS at Bibinagar while West Bengal has identified locations at Kalyani in Nadia district.
last year in June, the then Health Minister Harshvardhan had asked the States to send the proposal for the AIIMS like institutes on priority basis for the establishment of one AIIMS-like super-speciality hospital-cum-teaching institution. As per the scheme, cost of construction and running of the new AIIMS would be met by the central government under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).
Under the PMSSY, six AIIMS-like institutions have already been established in Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chatisgarh and Uttarakhand.