Centre Sanctions AIIMS For Telangana  

Hyderabad: Following TRS MPs' demand in Parliament for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for Telangana, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday formally sanctioned the setting up of AIIMS.

The State government had actively pursued the issue with the Centre but it was not announced in the budget speech of Mr. Jaitley in the Lok Sabha recently. The same was sanctioned for Gujarat and Jharkhand.

TRS MP B. Vinod Kumar addressed a letter to Mr. Jaitley the same day and party leader in Lok Sabha AP Jitender Reddy raised the demand in the House on Thursday which was immediately conceded by the Minister.

The newly constructed NIMS building at Bibinagar is being considered for setting up of AIIMS. The buildings and land for Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences at Bibinagar were also contemplated for transfer to AIIMS. Presently, only out-patient services are offered at NIMS-Bibinagar though it had huge buildings. However, the government is also considering 2-3 other locations for AIIMS. The sites were identified along the outer ring road at Shamirpet, Shamshabad and Ghatkesar.

The 400-acre campus of NIMS at Bibinagar is best suited for the national level hospital with top grade standards, a medical college, nursing institute and others. The location is geographically well-placed and is accessible to most of the Telangana districts with road and rail transport facilities.