Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bilaspur on Wednesday and laid the foundation stone of projects worth over ₹3,650 crore.
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AIIMS, Bilaspur, built at a cost of more than ₹1,470 crore, is a state-of-the-art hospital with 18 specialty and 17 super specialty departments, 18 modular operation theatres and 750 beds with 64 ICU beds.
Spread over 247 acres, the hospital is equipped with 24-hour emergency and dialysis facilities, modern diagnostic machines like ultrasonography, CT scan, MRI etc, Amrit Pharmacy and Jan Aushadhi Kendra and a 30-bed AYUSH block.
The hospital has also set up the Centre for Digital Health to provide health services in the tribal and inaccessible tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh. Also, specialist health services will be provided by the hospital through health camps in the tribal and high altitude regions of Kaza, Saluni, and Keylong.
The hospital will admit 100 students for the MBBS course and 60 students for the nursing course every year.
“The Prime Minister’s vision and commitment to strengthen health services across the country is being showcased again through the inauguration of AIIMS, Bilaspur. The hospital, whose foundation stone was also laid by the Prime Minister in October 2017, is being established under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana,” the PMO said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}“The Prime Minister’s vision and commitment to strengthen health services across the country is being showcased again through the inauguration of AIIMS, Bilaspur. The hospital, whose foundation stone was also laid by the Prime Minister in October 2017, is being established under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana,” the PMO said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}Four-laning of highway from Pinjore to Nalagarh
Modi laid he foundation stone of a 31-km four-laning project of the National Highway of India from Pinjore to Nalagarh on NH-105, worth over ₹1,690 crore. The project road is a major connecting link for traffic from Ambala, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Solan/Shimla going towards Bilaspur, Mandi and Manali.
“About 18 km stretch of this four-lane national highway falls under Himachal Pradesh and the remaining portion falls in Haryana,” it said. This highway will ensure better transport facilities in Nalagarh-Baddi, the industrial hub of Himachal Pradesh, and will also give a fillip to further industrial development in the region. It will also boost tourism in the state.
The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of the Medical Device Park at Nalagarh, which will be built at a cost of about ₹350 crore. Memorandum of understandings (MoU) of more than ₹800 crore have already been signed for setting up industries in this Medical Device Park. The project will significantly enhance employment opportunities in the region.
PM Modi also inaugurated the Government Hydro Engineering College at Bandla. “Costing about ₹140 crore, the college will help make available trained manpower for hydropower projects, in which Himachal Pradesh is one of the leading states. It will help in upskilling the youth and providing ample job opportunities in the hydropower sector,” the statement read.
First PM to take part in Kullu Dussehra
PM Modi participated in the Kullu Dussehra celebrations.
The International Kullu Dussehra Festival is being celebrated from October 5 to 11 at the Dhalpur Ground of Kullu.
The festival is unique in the sense that it is the congregation of more than 300 deities of the Valley. On the first day of the festival, the deities in their well-decorated palanquins pay their obeisance at the temple of the chief deity Bhagwan Raghunath Ji and then proceed to the Dhalpur Ground.
Modi is the first Prime Minister to witness this divine Rath Yatra and the grand assembly of the deities in the historic Kullu Dussehra celebrations.