The civil works for all the six AIIMS-like institutions being set up
under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) are
progressing and is scheduled to be completed in 15 months, except Patna
where duration is 18 months.

The civil works at the sites started
in May this year. At Rishikesh, the provision of basement for medical
college has been deleted due to high water level during excavation.
Consequently, structural analysis has been re-done and designs was got
revised by the design DPR consultant. At Bhubaneswar, there was
resistance from local people for mobilization of activities of the
contractor. As such, the works at Rishikesh and Bhubaneswar site are
slightly behind the schedule, official sources said.

An amount of
Rs.622.37 crore for construction of
medical colleges and an amount of Rs.1330.71
crore for hospital complex in respect of all the six sites were
allocated. Mobilization advance of five per cent has so far been
released.

The Union Cabinet approved the PMSSY in March, 2006
with the objective of correcting regional imbalances in the availability
of affordable/reliable tertiary healthcare services and also to augment
facilities for quality medical education in the country. Under Phase-I
of PMSSY, six AIIMS-like institutions are being set up, one each in the
States of Bihar (Patna), Chattisgarh (Raipur), Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal),
Orissa (Bhubaneshwar), Rajasthan (Jodhpur) and Uttarakhand (Rishikesh)
at an estimated cost of Rs. 840 crore per
institution including nursing colleges.

Government had recently
formed societies to give these institutions a governance structure,
which is not there at present. These societies will be functional till
the AIIMS-like institutions are brought under an Act
of Parliament.

The
expansion of 13 existing medical colleges was another part of the
PMSSY. Out of them, 10 institutions involve both civil work and
procurement of medical equipment and the remaining 3 involve mainly
procurement of equipment. Civil work at 4 medical colleges, viz.
Trivandrum Medical College, Bangalore Medical College, Salem Medical
College and Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences,
Lucknow has been completed. The work at Nizam Institute of Medical
Sciences, Hyderabad; Jammu Medical College and OPD and Academic Block of
Kolkata Medical College is likely to be completed by December, 2010 and
remaining 3 institutions in 2011. Procurement of medical equipments for
all the 13 medical college is expected to be completed by March, 2011.