Work on Bathinda AIIMS begins

Perneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 21

More than one-and-a-half years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone, the work on the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has finally begun in Bathinda.

The site on Bathinda-Dabwali road is now abuzz with activity with construction material being dumped there and the work gradually picking up pace. At present, approach roads leading to the sprawling site of the institute are being constructed so as to facilitate the supply of material in a hassle-free manner. The construction work of the AIIMS campus will start with the OPD block.

Till now, only the boundary wall of the institute was constructed and the work could not make any headway in the previous months due to some land acquisition issues, besides the delay in shifting a water channel from the site.

The authorities are aiming to kick off diagnostics in April next year and medical session from July 2019. Coming up on 177 acres on the outskirts of Bathinda at a cost of Rs 925 crore, the AIIMS would be a 750-bed premier medical institute, which would boast of 10 specialty and 11 super-specialty departments.

It would also have 16 ultra-modern state-of-the-art operation theatres along with a 100-seat medical college and a 60-seat nursing college. The AIIMS will have various wards, including emergency/trauma, private and ICU, specialty and superspecialty.

Earlier, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is also Bathinda MP, and Finance Minister Manpreet Badal had been engaged in a war of words over the delay in the prestigious project.

Harsimrat had slammed the state government for its alleged failure in shifting a water channel and building the approach road to the site for supply of construction material.