2 AIIMS to be set up at Vijaypur, Awantipora

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 24

It’s official now. Vijaypur in Samba district and Awantipora in Pulwama district will each get prestigious All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) which have been announced by the Government of India.

The state government has also constituted a high-level panel, headed by chief secretary, to address all issues relating to establishment of these institutes.

A source told The Tribune that the government had identified more than 2,000 kanals of land in the Vijaypur area for setting up AIIMS there, while nearly 1,700 kanals of land had been identified in the Awantipora area.

“Nearly, Rs 2,000 crore each has been sanctioned for establishment of AIIMS at Vijaypur and Awantipora under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan,” the source said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was likely to lay foundation stones for these two prestigious institutions soon.

According to an order issued by the General Administration Department, administrative secretaries of different departments comprising forest, home, power, roads and buildings, revenue, PHE, irrigation and flood control, divisional commissioners of Kashmir and Jammu and project directors of National Highway Authority of India would be members of the committee.

The administrative secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, would be the member secretary of the committee.

Pertinently, the Government of India had announced two AIIMS for the state -- one each for Kashmir and Jammu regions -- during the Union Budget for the year 2014-15.