The ambitious Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) to improve the status of badly-hit tertiary healthcare sector by setting up six more AIIMS-like institutes is still limping as detailed project reports are yet to be finalised even after formally launching it two years ago.

Though the Government has already allocated about Rs. 534 crore during the last four years for putting the plans in place and begin the preliminary works, so far only Rs. 67 crore could be spent as consultants are still in the process of architectural designs, according to the figures available with the Health Ministry.

The new AIIMS-like institutes would come up in the states of Bihar (Patna), Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal), Orissa (Bhubaneshwar), Rajasthan (Jodhpur), Chhattisgarh (Raipur) and Uttaranchal (Rishikesh) at an estimated cost of Rs. 332 crore per institution. Each institution will have an 850 bedded hospital intended to provide healthcare facilities in 39 speciality/super-speciality disciplines. Medical College will have 100 UG in-takes besides facilities for imparting PG/doctoral courses in various disciplines.

"The consultants have been selected for each site through an open competitive bidding. The layout and master plans for the AIIMS sites at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Raipur and Rishikesh have been approved. Approval of layout / master plan for Patna site is expected this month. The Consultants are in the process of preparing architectural design, which is expected to be finalized by May 2008. The detailed project report (DPR) would be ready by May-June 2008. Thereafter, tenders would be invited for selection of contractor for civil construction work,'' according to official sources.

In so far as construction of residential complex (housing & hostel) is concerned, bids were invited for selection of turnkey Developers. However, bid process was successful only for Jodhpur site and work has been awarded to Rajasthan State Road Development Corporation, a PSU of government of Rajasthan. Work is in progress.

The work relating to construction of residential complex at Rishikesh and Patna has been entrusted to HLL and for Bhubaneswar and Raipur to HSCC. Tender process has been initiated for selection of contractors for Bhubaneswar and Raipur sites by HSCC. For Bhopal site, housing complex work is being awarded alongside the hospital-medical college complex. The work of residential complexes is likely to be completed by 2009 and the hospital-medical college complexes by 2010, the sources said.

The idea was formally kicked off by the Vajpayee government in 2003 itself and hoped to see it completed by 2007. However, the Manmohan Singh government cleared it in 2006 with an estimated total cost of Rs 3500 crore.