The Tamil Nadu government has been asked to finalise the location for setting up an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, here on Saturday.
Mr. Choubey said that Chief Minister Edppadi K. Palaniswami was asked to expedite identification of land for AIIMS when he met him recently.
Fives sites short-listed
“Six AIIMS are functional under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana. While six new AIIMS will be set up by 2020, another two will be ready by 2021. Five more such institutions will be ready by 2022 and another one in Kashmir by 2024,” said Mr. Choubey at the inauguration of International Super Speciality Block at Sri Ramakrishna Hospital in Coimbatore.
Nearly three years ago, a Central team visited the proposed five sites in the State and submitted a report. The Centre and the State government are yet to decide the location of the ₹1,500-crore super speciality hospital.
Thoppur in Madurai district, Pudukottai, Sengipatti in Thanjavur district, Chenglepet at Kanchipuram district and Perundurai in Erode district were short-listed.
When there were reports that Thanjavur district had been chosen, the AIADMK MLAs from Madurai district threatened to quit. After the squabble in the ruling party, the State government took a stand that the Centre would would take a decision on the location of the AIIMS.
