The lackadaisical attitude of the Union government is the only reason behind the delay in the construction of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai, said T.N. Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Friday, June 23, 2023.
When the T.N. government had been getting financial support and borrowings for its multiple projects from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), what was stopping the Union government from sanctioning the AIIMS project (which is also receiving funds from JICA) swiftly, he asked, while speaking to reporters in Madurai.
The T.N. government had sought JICA funds for its projects in Government Kilpauk Medical College, Coimbatore Government Medical College and Hospital and even for the Chennai Metro Rail Project and work was underway in all these projects, he said, but getting funds for AIIMS was vested with the Union government.
The foundation stone for the Madurai AIIMS construction was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2019, and for this, a land parcel was handed over by the State government to the Centre, intact, he said.
To another query, the Health Minister said that even during his recent visit to Japan along with the Chief Minister last month, they met JICA officials and impressed upon them the need to expedite the process to sanction financial assistance for the AIIMS. “I am visiting New Delhi soon and will meet the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister in this regard,” he said.
Assuming that the funds arrived in the next three months from JICA, the work, the Minister said, may start by end of the calendar year and the building could be ready by 2028.
Minister V. Senthilbalaji
Asked about the health of arrested Minister V. Senthilbalaji, now at a private hospital in Chennai, the minister said that a team of doctors were closely monitoring him post his coronary bypass surgery.
The Health Minister was in Madurai to dedicate 15 newly-constructed buildings for primary health centres (PHCs), built at a cost of ₹6.34 crore in eight Assembly constituencies including Madurai East, Madurai Central, Madurai South, Thiruparankundram, Madurai West, Thirumangalam and Sholvandan.
The Minister also went around a new facility in Anaiyur accompanied by Minister P. Moorthy, Madurai Mayor Indrani Pon Vasanth, Madurai Collector M.S. Sangeetha, Corporation Commissioner K. J. Praveen Kumar, Government Rajaji Hospital Dean A. Rathinavel, MLAs G .Thalapathi and M. Boominathan and other officials.
Site for homeopathy college
The Minister also inspected a 5-acre plot of land near the AIIMS site for construction of a homeopathy college, which is now functioning in a water-body in Thirumangalam. Since the existing building had developed cracks and was not safe for students, there have been demands that the government shift the college to a new building. Under such circumstances, the Minister said that the Madurai District Collector has been requested to fence the 5-acre plot of land immediately through the Public Works Department and that after obtaining sanction from the T.N. government, the Chief Minister would announce the new building soon.
Mr. Subramanian also visited the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai City, where a new tower block is coming up at a cost of ₹159.65 crore and in all probability, construction work should get over in about three months from now. The CM will dedicate it to the public at a function, the Minister said.
A new building has also been proposed for integrated child care within the GRH campus at a cost of ₹20 crore for which a bhoomi puja ceremony was performed. Officials said that two-storey building would come up in 15 months’ time, with 100 beds.
