BHUBANESWAR: Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday said that the first academic session of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here is all set to start from September this year, while the hospital will be ready next year.Azad, who was on a two-day visit of the State, went to the AIIMS site at Sijua near here in the morning and reviewed the construction work. Azad told mediapersons that though work is moving at a slow pace, it has been decided to start the medical college this year. Classes for the MBBS course will begin in September, 2012, he said.The hospital will be completed next year to enable the students who join the MBBS course at the new AIIMS to utilise the facility, Azad said, adding that the director for the institute has been selected and the process for appointment of faculties has already started.“Now all work and preparations are going on for starting the classes this year and the hospital by 2013. People are working day and night to complete the work within the deadline,” he said. AIIMS is being set up on 100 acres of land at Sijua on the outskirts of the city.The State Government has approved `18 lakh for putting up an 11 KV line at the AIIMS project site, while an additional `9 lakh has been sanctioned for beautification of the campus.The AIIMS-Bhubaneswar project consists of three components __ hospital, medical college and housing __ and work is in progress on all the three areas. While the hospital is being set up at a cost of `264 cr, around `100 cr remained to be spent on the medical college and `50 cr on housing. It may be noted that the Centre had proposed to set up six branches of AIIMS at Patna, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Raipur and Rishikesh in 2003.The Minister, who reviewed activities in health sector in Odisha, said several initiatives to check child mortality and ensure safe motherhood had been taken in the State. “I am happy the work done is okay,” he said.
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