The central government on Friday approved a long-pending demand of the Telangana government after it gave an in-principle nod to establishing a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the state.
The Centre wrote a letter to the state government to this effect, asking the latter to identify land for acquisition following which a Detailed Project Report (DPR) would be sent to the Expenditure Finance Committee.
The letter penned by the Department of Expenditure under the Ministry of Finance said that the DPR could be prepared by any reputed agency.
According to reports, the letter stated that a comparison of cost incurred in the most recently-established AIIMS and the cost proposed to be incurred on the institute being established in Telangana must be provided with the proposal.
Earlier media reports suggested that the Telangana government had identified land at Bibinagar in Nalgonda district for AIIMS, but has to now scout for new land, as Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) had been established in the area.
This comes months after the Telangana government expressed great anger, as the long-pending issue of an AIIMS to be set up in Telangana was not even addressed by the Centre during the recent Union Budget.
While the setting up of one each new AIIMS in Jharkhand and Gujarat was announced, no such announcement was made for Telangana, despite provisions in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Telangana was allocated Rs 75 crore for the IIT in Hyderabad and Rs 10 crore for a tribal university.
The establishment of an International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography in Hyderabad by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), was also approved after the proposal received a cabinet nod last December.
The state government had been putting constant pressure on the Centre over the issue, with Health Minister C Laxma Reddy even travelling to New Delhi with a delegation to meet Union Health Minister JP Nadda.