Submit details about AIIMS in Madurai, HC tells Centre

When a PIL filed by one KK Ramesh came up for hearing before the division bench of Justice KK Sasidharan and Justice PD Audikesavalu on Thursday, the court posed a series of questions to the Union Health Secretary, including as to when the construction works for the much-awaited AIIMS Hospital would commence. The bench also sought to know what all measures and actions were taken to initiate the project to establish the hospital in Madurai district as announced by the Centre earlier this year.

According to the petitioner, though the Union Government had come out with the announcement about setting up the AIIMS unit way back in February 2015, it was not confirmed for nearly three years whether the facility would come up in Tamil Nadu. Then, Thoppur in Madurai district was finally identified as the site to host the prestigious medical college, the announcement for which came out on June 20, 2018.

However, nearly five months have gone by without any progress. While construction works for the AIIMS hospital announced for other states have already begun, there was no headway for the project in Tamil Nadu, the petitioner rued. Hence, he demanded that the government should notify on its gazette that the hospital would be set up in Thoppur, and also to ensure that the project was taken up at the earliest.

The Union Government should adopt a resolution to expedite the project, said Ramesh, also seeking a direction to the Centre to allot sufficient funds for the project.

The advocate representing the Centre assured that the AIIMS hospital would indeed come up at Thoppur in Madurai as per the announcement, and added that there would be no change in this regard.

On hearing the petition, the bench directed the Union Health Secretary to submit a report on project duration and exact time frame for the project on December 6, and posted the case to further hearing.