An artist’s impression of the proposed AIIMS complex on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. (Above), Work in pogress at the AIIMS site. (Below) Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, April 25: Construction work at the site of the Netaji Subash Chandra Bose All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on the outskirts of the city here is going on in full swing. The authorities hope that the hospital as well as the college will become operational by 2013, as the construction work is expected to be completed by 2012.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone for this prestigious project on July 15, 2003. But no construction work, however, had started at the site till 2009. With the state government taking up appropriate measures for speedy execution of the project, construction work has gained momentum at the site in the last eight months.

The multi-speciality medical complex is being built on a sprawling 100 acres near Sijua village, seven kilometres from the capital. The government had already handed over 91.465 acres of land for the hospital. “Steps have been initiated to handover the remaining land at the earliest opportunity,” said an official.

Chief secretary Bijay Patnaik and a team of officials visited the spot today and reviewed the progress made at the site. The 960-bed multi-speciality hospital will have a total built up area of 1,46,000 square metres. While the college complex will have an area of 35,035 square metres, the remaining area of 1, 10,000 square metres will be meant for the hospital.

The Centre has allocated Rs 782 crore for the project. There will be 10 blocks in the hospital and the college. The proposed hospital will have 15 super-speciality and 18 speciality wards. While Rs 260 crore will be spent for building the hospital, Rs 67 crore will be spent for building the medical college. Another Rs 82 crore will be spent for building the housing complex.

Four-laning of the two-kilometre stretch of the road from the National Highway-5 (Calcutta-Chennai highway) to the proposed site is almost complete. “Construction is remaining at few places of the road which we will be able to complete soon,” said an official. An overhead water tank and a sump has already been installed to provide 24-hour water supply to the site. “The overhead tank will have a water carrying capacity of 5 lakh litres, while the sump will have a capacity to store 35 lakh litres of water. Once the sump is filled up, it will have the capacity to make the institute run for seven days depending solely on its storage. Water connection to the tank and the sump will be established by May, 2011,” the official added.

Local residents are happy with the progress in the construction work as the nearby localities of the complex are also witnessing a boom in construction activities.

“Five years ago an acre of land in the area would cost around Rs 3 lakh. Now, it has gone up to Rs 70 lakh,” said a villager. “The proposed hospital will change the socio-economic scenario of the locality. I have four sons and three daughters. We were all dependant on farming. But now as the locality is witnessing a sudden flow of investment, we hope to be able to opt for other livelihood options soon,” said Anadi Martha, a 72-years-old villager of Sijua.

Another local resident, Pravakar Jaysing (45), said: “Earlier, the government had planned to shift the 120 Infantry Battalion from the city to this place. We had then opposed the move, but we had welcomed the idea of setting up of the premier medical institute here.”