PM Modi gifts AIIMS to BHU, IMS to be upgraded as super specialty hospital

The Prime Miniser Narendra Modi gave another mega gift to his parliamentary constituency Varanasi when Banaras Hindu University’s Indian Medical Sciences (IMS) was finally accorded the status of AIIMS after the Central and State government signed a MoU in this regard on Saturday.

The IMS will be upgraded on the lines of the AIIMS with an estimated cost of Rs 200 crores. It will become fully functional by March 2019 with super facilities like AIIMS. Unlike other AIIMS which are autonomous bodies, IMS will be the first super specialty hospital which will governed by the BHU Act and not AIIMS Act to provide top class medicare to patients in and around Varanai.

The demand for opening AIIMS in Varanasi was on for the past two years. After a series of meetings in Delhi, an MoU was signed between IMS and AIIMS on June 19 this year. A ten-member team of experts from AIIMS visited BHU last month to assess the facilities at the IMS.

Finally, the announcement was made on Saturday at function in BHU in the presence of the Union Health Minister JP Nadda and Union HRD Minister Prakash Javedkar and State Health Minister Ashutosh Tandon.

Speaking on the occasion, the Union Health minister said that after the MoU, the IMS BHU will get all AIIMS-like facilities. “It was the vision of Mahamana Madan Mohan Malviya to have everything within the BHU campus. We respected the great leader’s sentiments and brought upgraded IMS into AIIMS so that it remain with the BHU,” said Nadda.