VIKAS SHARMA
JAMMU : The Committee on Estimates, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has observed that the physical progress of most of the new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) far exceeded their completion dates as stipulated and Specialties/Super Specialties remained non-functional.
The report was presented in the Lok Sabha Secretariat today at New Delhi. “The physical progress at the time of examination of the subject was as low as 6 percent of construction at AIIMS, Awantipora in Kashmir with a similar status to AIIMS, Rajkot, AIIMS, Samba in Jammu, and AIIMS, Guwahati. AIIMS, Madurai was expected to be constructed in September 2022 but was extended by 4 years”, the report said.
The Committee recommended that the Ministry should constitute a Project Review Panel for each AIIMS which would evaluate both physical targets of construction of buildings as well as medical facilities every quarter and report laxities, if any, to the Ministry which can look into the difficulties and solve them in time.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in its reply stated that a Project Review Committee has already been constituted to review the new AIIMS projects. “A web-enabled dashboard has also been deployed to facilitate project management and monitoring.
At State Level also, there is provision for Review Committees to monitor progress of new AIIMS projects in the concerned States. In respect of the new AIIMS, it is to inform that construction work of AIIMS Raebareli, Nagpur, Kalyani and Bathinda has been completed.
Further, construction work of AIIMS Mangalagiri, Gorakhpur and Bilaspur is in the final stages of completion. This Ministry is making all efforts to complete other remaining AIIMS projects in a time bound manner”, the Ministry replied.
However, the Committee noted that there is only 32 percent progress in the construction through Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode. The Committee was concerned to note that there was only 6 percent progress in the construction through EPC mode.
Pertinently, both AIIMS Samba and AIIMS Awantipora were approved by the Cabinet on October 1, 2019 The Cabinet approved date of completion is January 2023 for AIIMS Samba and January 2025 for AIIMS Awantipora. AIIMS Samba is being constructed on a total land of 226.84 acres while AIIMS Awantipora is being constructed on 221 acres. All the prestigious medical institutes across the country were approved under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).
PMSSY has two components – setting up of new AIIMS like institutes and upgradation of existing Government Medical Colleges (GMCs). Setting up of 22 new AIIMS and 75 Government Medical Colleges up-gradation projects has been approved under this PMSSY scheme.