In response to Chidambaram Member of Parliament Thol Thirumalavan’s question in the Parliament, the Union government said that the Madurai All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) project is estimated to be completed by 2026. The MP had raised five questions, including the current status and completion date of the project.
The questions raised were about the number of AIIMS under construction in the country, State/UT-wise, the date of sanctioning/launching of each project along with the current status of these projects; the time period within which these projects are proposed to be completed, the number of ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machines and ICU beds available in the country, State/UT-wise; and the number of ventilator ambulances available in the country, State/UT-wise.
Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, in his reply stated that ‘setting up of 22 new AIIMS has been approved under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), six of which are fully functional at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh’. He also added that the details of State/UTwise availability of ECMO machines was not maintained centrally.
He also said that there were 1,53,167 ICU beds, 67,171 ventilators and 27,810 ambulances all over India.
According to the data he provided of the AIIMS project, of the remaining 16 ongoing AIIMS projects, the ‘target date of completion’ is fixed at 2022 for nine places, 2023 for two institutes and one each in 2025 and 2026. Also, no target time is fixed for two projects and one project has been marked as ‘Civil work completed’.
With regard to the AIIMS project at Madurai, the reply states that the pre-investment work was in progress and the loan agreement has been signed between the governments of India and Japan. Further, the process to engage Project Management Consultant (PMC) is underway, it stated.
In August last year, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had told the Union government that it expects the construction of an AIIMS facility in Thoppur, Madurai to be completed in 36 months, while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a resident of Madurai. The Union government had announced the project to set up an AIIMS in Madurai in 2015 and the location was announced in 2018.