Bengal AIIMS on fast track

KOLKATA: The proposed AIIMS-like institute at Kalyani in Nadia district is on the fast track. The Union health minister intends sending a team to inspect the land sometime this month.
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan wrote to the Mamata Banerjee government, seeking land for the proposed centre of excellence. They wanted the government to identify 150 acres at Kalyani.
The ministry had mentioned three specific conditions - all-weather road, sufficient water and electricity connection. "We have chosen two such plots at Kalyani. The Union health ministry will now select one of the two and then prepare a DPR for the project," state health secretary Moloy De said on Tuesday.
The state government has sent the "parchas" (a document on the land ownership) and other relevant details about the two plots. One is near the Gandhi Stadium and the other at Kampa More.
Of the four AIIMS-like institutes announced by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in this year's Budget, the one at Kalyani may become the first to get started. The inspection team will comprise engineers, architects and other experts to look into the land position and its connectivity, power and water supply. AIIMS needs highly qualified doctors on permanent posting. AIIMS professors and doctors are not transferred to maintain it top standard.
The project will come under Phase-II of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna. The one at Uttar Pradesh will also be initiated simultaneously. The scheme aims at correcting the imbalances in tertiary level healthcare.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee picked Kalyani over contender Raiganj because of its proximity to Kolkata and the research environment created by the proximity of the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics. The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research is also nearby. It takes less than two hours to reach Kalyani by road from Kolkata whereas Raiganj is more than 400 km away from the city.
In his Budget speech, Jaitley announced that four AIIMS-like institutes would be set up in Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Vidharbha in Maharashtra and Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh. The Centre has allocated Rs 500 crore all four, the initial cost for setting up these institutes has been estimated at Rs 800 crore each.
The Bengal government must undertake to provide land free of cost, other required infrastructure and regulatory clearances. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government had announced in 2004 the setting up of new hospitals on the lines of New Delhi's AIIMS under PMSSY.
But it was the UPA-I government which had decided to set up these institutes. Former Union minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi tried to get it for Raigunj, his own constituency in the North Dinajpur district. After he fell ill, his wife Deepa, the former Congress MP, launched an agitation to get it in Raigunj even as Mamata demanded that the project be set up at Kalyani. The UPA-II sat on the proposal. The NDA government on coming to power accepted Mamata's demand.