Odishatv Bureau
Bhubaneswar: Despite the slow pace of construction work, the first academic session of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar is all set to begin from September this year while its hospital would be ready next year, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Sunday.

"Work is moving at a slow pace, but we have decided to start the medical college of AIIMS here this year. Classes for the MBBS course will begin in September, 2012," Azad told reporters here. Similarly, the hospital would be completed next year so that the students who join the MBBS course at the new AIIMS centre would be able to utilise the facility, Azad said after visiting the site and reviewing construction work for AIIMS. The Director for the upcoming prestigious institute has already been selected and selection of faculties had also been completed, he said.

"Now all work and preparations (are) for starting the classes this year and the hospital by 2013 with full pace. People are working day and night to complete the work as per our plan," Azad said. AIIMS is coming up on 100 acres of land at Sijua on the outskirts of the city. The state government had approved Rs 18 lakh for putting up an 11 KV line at the AIIMS project site while an additional Rs 9 lakh was been approved for beautification of the campus.

The AIIMS-Bhubaneswar project consists of three components- hospital, medical college and housing- and work was in progress on all the three areas. While the hospital is being set up at a cost of Rs 264 crore, around Rs 100 crore remained to be spent on the medical college and Rs 50 crore on housing, sources said. 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 union 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 ok," he said. Proposals were given to the union minister for setting up of a cancer hospital and yoga and naturopathy resource centres, sources said.

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