AIIMS will be shifted from Darbhanga: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

The state government earlier decided to allot 200 acres of Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital land for the construction of Bihar’s second AIIMS, but transferred 81 acres of it to the Centre in September last year

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said that the proposed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Darbhanga will come up at another location, away from the Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) campus where it is currently located.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. (PTI Photo)

The state government earlier decided to allot 200 acres of DMCH land for the construction of Bihar’s second AIIMS, of which it transferred 81 acres to the Centre in September last year.

“You already know that we wanted to convert DMCH into AIIMS. First they (Centre) had agreed. Later, they said they would instead build it separately,” Kumar told reporters in Darbhanga during his Samadhan Yatra.

“The location has been identified,” the CM said, though he did not share details of the new site.

Recently, senior Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Bhola Yadav told reporters that Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav had agreed to shift the location of AIIMS from DMCH to Ashok Paper Mills in Hayaghat on the outskirts of the town.

Meanwhile, Kumar visited the state’s first floating solar power plant, commissioned recently in Darbhanga, also known as ‘City of Ponds’. The 2-MW capacity grid-tied floating solar power project is an initiative of the Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency.

The chief minister also inaugurated Bihar’s second planetarium in Darbhanga on Thursday. According to state information and public relations department minister Sanjay Kumar Jha, the 150-seat planetarium and science museum, which also has a 300-seat auditorium, is among the best in the country.