Construction work on Madurai AIIMS delayed by lackadaisical attitude of Centre: T.N. Health Minister

The lackadaisical attitude of the Union government is the only reason behind the delay in the construction of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai, said T.N. Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Friday.

The lackadaisical attitude of the Union government is the only reason behind the delay in the construction of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai, said T.N. Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Friday.

When the T.N. government had been getting financial support and borrowings for its multiple projects from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), what was stopping the Union government from sanctioning the AIIMS project (which is also receiving funds from JICA) swiftly, he asked, while speaking to reporters in Madurai.

The T.N. government had sought JICA funds for its projects in Government Kilpauk Medical College, Coimbatore Government Medical College and Hospital and even for the Chennai Metro Rail Project and work was underway in all these projects, he said, but getting funds for AIIMS was vested with the Union government.

The foundation stone for the Madurai AIIMS construction was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2019, and for this, a land parcel was handed over by the State government to the Centre, intact, he said.

To another query, the Health Minister said that even during his recent visit to Japan along with the Chief Minister last month, they met JICA officials and impressed upon them the need to expedite the process to sanction financial assistance for the AIIMS. “I am visiting New Delhi soon and will meet the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister in this regard,” he said.

Assuming that the funds arrived in the next three months from JICA, the work, the Minister said, may start by end of the calendar year and the building could be ready by 2028.

Asked about the health of arrested Minister V. Senthilbalaji, now at a private hospital in Chennai, the minister said that a team of doctors were closely monitoring him post his coronary bypass surgery.