AIIMS Bhatinda receives Cabinet nod

The Cabinet has approved the establishment of a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Bhatinda in Punjab under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) with an investment of Rs 925 crores. The institution will have a hospital with capacity of 750 beds. 

The new AIIMS at Bhatinda will provide super specialty health care to the population while creating a large pool of doctors and other health workers in this region that can be available for primary and secondary level institutions and facilities being created under National Health Mission (NHM). The institute will also conduct research on prevalent regional diseases and other health issues and provide for better control and cure of such diseases. 

The project will be completed in a period of 48 months from the date of the approval by the Government of India. It consists of a pre-construction phase of 15 months, a construction phase of 30 months and stabilisation &commissioning phase of 3 months. 

Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) was first announced in August 2003 with the primary objective of correcting the regional imbalances in availability of affordable and reliable tertiary level healthcare in the country in general, and to augment facilities for quality medical education in under-served or backward states, in particular. 

Under this scheme AIIMS have been established in Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Raipur, Rishikesh, Bhopal and Patna while work of AIIMS Rae Bareli is in progress. Also, three AIIMS in Nagpur (Maharashtra), Kalyani (West Bengal) and Mangalagiri in Guntur (Andhra Pradesh) have been sanctioned in 2015.