After losing an opportunity to set up an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Kerala seven years ago, the State government has once again set the ball rolling for establishing the premier medical institute on the unused 150 acres of land at Kinalur Industrial Estate, near Balussery, in Kozhikode district.
The proposed AIIMS, which would benefit the people of six districts in north Kerala, has been on the back burner for long. The first Narendra Modi Ministry announced to establish AIIMS-like institutes in 10 States in 2014.
Now the State government has secured a positive feedback on the project from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The new Union Health Minister, Mansukh L. Mandaviya, has agreed to the proposal if suitable land was made available for the purpose.
Team visits site
A team led by Principal Health Secretary Rajan N. Khobragade visited Kinalur, about 25km from Kozhikode city, the other day. A report would be submitted to the Ministry shortly for assessment, officials said.
The government had in its possession over 300 acres of land at Kinalur acquired from the Cochin Malabar Estates. Of this, 30 acres had been allotted to the Usha School of Athletics, another five acres for a government college, two acres for a KSEB substation and 100 acres to the Industries Department for promotion of small and medium scale enterprises. Kinalur would be an ideal location for AIIMS, sources said.
22 nationwide
At present, Kerala is perhaps the only major State in the country that does not figure on the list of AIIMS under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) scheme. A status update of 22 AIIMS nationwide showed them at different stages, from being fully functional to having MBBS classes and from having outpatient department facilities to construction of main building being in progress.
In 2014, M.K. Raghavan, Kozhikode MP, took up the issue of setting up an AIIMS on 200 acres of land at Kinalur Industrial Estate with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardan. Subsequently the State government identified four locations across the State. The open jail compound at Nettukaltheri in Thiruvananthapuram district, the land with the Industries Department at Kinalur in Kozhikode district, land belonging to the medical college at Kottayam, and the HMT land at Kalamassery in Ernakulam district were locations identified.
However Shashi Tharoor, MP, came forward with a proposal that his constituency Thiruvananthapuram, being a hub of research institutes, was the ideal site for AIIMS. Till now, however, nothing progressed on this.
