dna exclusive: Rae Bareli's AIIMS dream all set to come true

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency Rae Bareli will finally have an institute on the lines of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) soon, with the state government clearing the first hurdle and allotting land for the institute.

“The state government has informed the central government that it has earmarked 96 acres, against the proposed about 150 acres, as of now,” Sundeep K Nayak, joint secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare, told dna. “On June 10, the government officially sent the papers and on June 11, I personally went to the place and took the possession after having a look at the land,” he added.

The land earlier had a sugar mill which has been closed down for a while now.
According to Nayak, formalities for acquiring the land have been completed and now tenders and contracts will be finalised for the project. He also said that the rest of the land would also be finalised soon. However, work will begin from this piece of land now.

The hospital is likely to have a capacity of 1,000 beds. However, the authorities are not sure of the finalisation of the entire project as it is expected to take a couple of years more.

The Uttar Pradesh government had announced last year that it would provide land free of cost to the Centre for setting up an AIIMS-like medical institute in Rae Bareli. This project, which was proposed in 2008, was put on the back burner reportedly due to the Mayawati government not allotting land for it.