30 August, Srinagar: Officials stated on Wednesday that they are making every effort to finish building the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the Awantipora region of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district by the end of 2024.
According to an official who spoke with the news agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO), construction is proceeding at “very full speed” and, if this keeps up, the project will be finished on schedule.
He said that problems with a neighbouring army post and a crackdown after the repeal of Article 370 came after a legal disagreement over the purchase of property necessary for the access road vital for delivering building material. He also mentioned the winter season and COVID-19 as factors delaying the completion of this massive project.
The official said that construction has been proceeding at full speed for the last several months, and that this rate of progress should be maintained for the next year and a half in order to finish the hospital by December 2024.
A senior official on the project has said that there were complications in the last several years that slowed down progress, but that these problems have been fixed and progress is now being made at a normal rate.
He also said that around 50 percent of the work has already been accomplished and that every effort is being made to finish the project before the deadline, so don’t worry about the installation of equipment being rushed.
The government has set the timeframe for this massive project to be finished by December 31, 2024.
The AIIMS, projected to cost Rs 1,828 crore in 2019, was given the green light by the Central government. About 57 structures, including a hospital, hostels, residential quarters, a football pitch, tennis courts and gardens with medicinal plants, are planned to be built as part of the project.
The institution plans to expand its present capacity of 300 super-specialty beds to a total of 1,000 beds in Kashmir. The ambitious plan also includes a School of Medicine that can accommodate 100 students and a School of Nursing that can accommodate 60 students.
