India
Six Indian states to get premier medical institutes
By IANS
Mar 17, 2006, 13:52

After hanging fire for almost two years, six "under-served" Indian states are to get state-of-the-art medical institutes fashioned on the lines of the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.


"Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttaranchal will get AIIMS-type institutions at a total cost of Rs.1,992 crores (Rs.19.92 billion)," Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced Thursday.

He was speaking after the move was cleared at a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Each institution, to be established at a cost of Rs.3.32 billion within three years, will have an 850-bed hospital to provide medical treatment in 39 specialty and super-specialty disciplines.

Each institution will admit 100 students at the undergraduate level every year and provide postgraduate and doctoral courses according to Medical Council of India norms, Chidambaram said.

"This will fill the gap in tertiary healthcare infrastructure and provide facilities for quality medical education in the under-served states," he said.

Each state government will provide 100 acres of developed land and infrastructure like water, electricity and roads.

The methodology for funding and running the institutes "is being worked out with the state governments" and could even include a public-private partnership, Chidambaram said.

Asked about the delay in establishing the institutes, which had been announced by the previous National Democratic Alliance government two years ago, Chidambaram attributed this to the lack of homework.

"At that time, there was only an announcement. The scheme was not fleshed out. That has now been done. Four of the six states have only now established the land for the institution," Chidambaram said.

Of the six states where the new institutions will come up, India's ruling Congress is in power only in Uttaranchal.

The Bharatiya Janata Party rules Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and is a coalition partner in Bihar and Orissa.

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