Finally, work on AIIMS, Madurai begins?

AIIMS, Madurai was announced by the Narendra Modi government in 2015 and the foundation stone was laid in 2019

The establishment of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai is one of the issues that dominated the campaign for the April 6 elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly. A few days after voting ended in the state, it has now emerged that there is light at the end of the tunnel – work on building the premier medical institute has begun.

“Loan agreement has been signed between Government of India and Government of Japan for setting up AIIMS in Tamil Nadu,” the Centre said in a reply to a query raised by R Pandiaraja under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. However, the Centre said further details can only be shared only when the signed loan agreement is received by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide the loan for construction of AIIMS.

AIIMS, Madurai was announced by the Narendra Modi government in 2015, but the time taken by the state government in identifying the location delayed the establishment of the premier institute. After lobbying by several cities in the state, the Tamil Nadu government zeroed in on Thoppur, 20 kilometres from Madurai, for AIIMS and the foundation stone for the same was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2019.

However, nothing moved forward for two years, prompting the Opposition parties to make it an issue in the run-up to the Assembly elections. The issue assumed centre stage when DMK youth wing chief Udhayanidhi Stalin held a red brick in his hand during a roadshow and called it “AIIMS, Madurai” to take a dig at the AIADMK-BJP alliance, implying there was nothing except the brick at Thoppur, the village where the institute will come up. Videos of Udhayanidhi holding the brick at many roadshows went viral on social media.

Read | With a brick in hand, DMK's Udhayanidhi 'brings' AIIMS Madurai to election rally

AIIMS has always been in news in Tamil Nadu, but mostly for wrong reasons. To be fair, it is the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Modi which announced setting up of the institute in the 2015-16 Union Budget, though Congress leaders claim they initiated the process.

The Centre took time to kick off the process and when things started moving, Tamil Nadu witnessed a political upheaval following J Jayalalithaa's death. In 2017, there was a clamour among ministers and senior leaders of AIADMK to take AIIMS to their area, delaying the process further.

Thanjavur, Tiruchirapalli and other cities were in contention – many associations took out rallies demanding that the institute should come up in their place, but Madurai won finally.

Though there was not much progress after the foundation stone was laid in 2019 due to a slew of reasons, including Covid-19, the Centre appointed members to the governing council of the institute and has now allotted funds in the Union Budget.