Foundation stone for AIIMS to be laid tomorrow.

After several hiccups, the foundation stone for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will be laid on December 19 on the premises of T.B Sanatorium at the temple town of Mangalagiri.

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu will attend the ceremony.

The ceremony had been delayed twice this year owing to land-related issues. Of the 193 acres allotted to AIIMS, organisations like NDRF and NID have taken possession of 50 acres and 30 acres, respectively, leaving around 100 acres for AIIMS.

After the government zeroed in on the site in July, 2014, the foundation ceremony was scheduled for May this year, but Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda cancelled his visit to Mangalagiri amid uncertainty over allotment of land. The AIIMS will be built on a site where the TB Sanatorium exists. It was then Chief Minister the late N.T. Rama Rao who had proposed to establish the NTR University of Health Sciences at Mangalagiri, but intense political lobbying by leaders from Krishna district forced the government to locate the university in Vijayawada.

Meanwhile, Minister for Health Kamineni Srinivas said the AIIMS - Mangalagiri had been allotted Rs. 1,618 crore, and that it would have 900 beds. The institution, he added, would be a teaching hospital with an intake of 100 students, while the infrastructure included an R & D Centre, Public Health Centre and a paramedical centre.

“We are keen on completing the main blocks by December 2018,' Dr. Srinivas said.

The site is located in Navuluru panchayat. One has to trudge through a distance of at least 4 km from the old NH-5 to reach the site, but the government is considering laying a direct road from the National Highway through Vaddeswaram.

BJP Guntur Parliamentary In-charge Madala Srinivas demanded that a new Mangalagiri station be built at Navuluru near AIIMS, integrating the old NH-5.

THE HINDU