AIIMS Bibinagar works likely to exceed deadline by one year

HYDERABAD: AIIMS Bibinagar has only two more years to complete the entire structure along with the staff recruitment, this was revealed in response to an RTI query recently. However, AIIMS Bibinagar Director Dr Vikas Bhatia claimed that it would take at least three more years to the build basic infrastructure and for the medical college to become functional. The Cabinet had approved setting up of AIIMS at Bibinagar at an estimated cost of `1,028 crore in 2018 under Pradhan Mantri Swsathya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). The State government has to provide encumbrance free land for setting up of AIIMS and so far `18.11 crore have been released to the Executing Agency for the project. The approved timeline for completion of the project is September, 2022. 

Dr Bhatia also said that while they were still waiting for the State government to completely handover the NIMS building to the Central government, the latter has been able to acquire 60 rooms to construct an in-patient ward. Procurement notices for equipment have been sent to the Central government for the in-patient ward, and recruitment of permanent nursing staff will begin from Friday. 

Within four months of beginning of the academic year at AIIMS, Bibinagar, the mentorship of the campus changed to Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry, from AIIMS, Bhopal. 

The Central government’s delay in setting up Bibinagar campus, and the State government’s inability to intervene has led to the present predicament. The institute was supposed to open doors of Out-patient Department from December 26, which did not happen. Speaking to Express, Dr Bhatia said, “We are in the Phase 7 of the planning. We have managed to unlock close to 60 rooms in the NIMS building and these will be used for in-patient admissions. We have conducted the exams for over 100 positions of nursing staff, at AIIMS New Delhi. The recruitment of these permanent positions will start in a day or two. In addition to this, we will have to start recruitment of over 160 positions for permanent faulty. The medical college has one batch of 50 students with 16 contract faculty.” He added, “We are providing tele-and-video consultation as of now. ”