HC notice to Centre on plea seeking to expedite Madurai AIIMS

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday served notice to the Central government in a plea seeking to complete the construction of AIIMS Hospital at Thoppur in Madurai in a time frame.

A public interest litigation petition filed by K.K. Ramesh of Madurai came up for hearing before a division bench comprising JusticeD. Krishnakumar and Justice R. Vijayakumar.

The petitioner stated that though the Union Government came out with the announcement about setting up of AIIMS way back in February 2015, it was not confirmed for nearly three years whether the facility would come up in Tamil Nadu. Finally, Thoppur in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu was identified as the site to host the prestigious medical college, the announcement for which came out on June 20 in 2018.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the AIIMS project in Madurai on January 27 in 2019. However, several months had gone by with only a little progress. While construction works for the AIIMS Hospital announced for other states after Madurai, were completed, there’s no significant headway for the project in Tamil Nadu. It’s said that the AIIMS project in Madurai would be over in a period of 36 months. Hence, the petitioner sought early completion of the project in Thoppur.

The petitioner sought the intervention of the court to set a time frame to complete this project and demanded action and impose penalty against any official giving incorrect report on the progress of this project. The petitioner also sought the court’s direction to the government to adopt a special resolution on fund allocation towards the project.

The counsel said tender notifications were over and the construction of AIIMS Hospital would be completed by 2026. A detailed report would be submitted next week, the counsel said.