Bihar yet to provide land for second AIIMS

New Delhi: Two years after the Centre announced one more AIIMS in Bihar to strengthen health infrastructure and assured cooperation in initiatives to improve medicare facilities in the state, the Nitish Kumar government has failed to provide land for the project despite repeated reminders. 

Nevertheless, the state government has now asked the Centre to indicate a location for setting up the AIIMS like institute in Bihar. “We are writing repeatedly to them. In the recent letter that we got from the state, it indicated that we finalise a piece of land for them. Identification of the land is state’s responsibility. The state government is required to offer four alternative suitable pieces of land with required parameters but they are ignoring it. The minister has written to the Bihar CM and many letters have been sent to the principal secretary health yet there is no response,” a senior health ministry official revealed.  

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced the opening of second AIIMS for Bihar, besides the one in Patna in his 2015-2016 Budget speech. However, despite repeated reminders from the Centre, there is no move. 

The Bihar government was supposed to make available 200 acres, which was linked with required infrastructure, four-lane road connectivity to highways, sufficient water supply, electricity connection of required load and regulatory/statutory clearances.

Now the health ministry has once again asked the state to choose the site based on these criteria, citing it was not be possible for the Centre to finalise land on their behalf. “The state government can identify 3-4 sites keeping in view the aspects that may be kept in view so that only such sites are offered that would fair well against different parameters,” a recent ministry letter said.