Centre rejects new site proposed by Bihar govt for AIIMS in Darbhanga

Secretary in the union ministry of health and family welfare, Rajesh Bhushan, has written a letter to the principal secretary, government of Bihar, Pratyaya Amrit, citing several reasons why executing the project at the proposed site would be complex

The union ministry of health and family welfare has rejected the new site in Darbhanga district proposed by the Bihar government for establishing the state’s second All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), terming the land as “unsuitable” and requesting the state government to provide alternative land for the project, officials familiar with the matter said.

Darbhanga Medical College & Hospital. (HT Photo)

Secretary in the union ministry of health and family welfare, Rajesh Bhushan, has written a letter to the principal secretary, government of Bihar, Pratyaya Amrit, citing several reasons why executing the project at the proposed site would be complex. HT has seen a copy of the letter, dated May 26.

This is the second time the site offered for the project has failed to materialise.

Earlier, the state government had handed over 81 acres of land on the campus of Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) after the state cabinet granted nod for transfer of 200 acres of DMCH land for the proposed AIIMS in November 2021.

However, chief minister Nitish Kumar, during his visit to Darbhanga on January 12, 2023, had announced that the project will be shifted to a better accessible location.

Later, on April 3, 2023, principal secretary of health department, government of Bihar, wrote a formal letter to the union ministry informing them about an alternative land at Ekmi-Shobhan bypass, on the outskirts of Darbhanga town.

Referring to the above letter from Pratyaya Amrit, the union ministry has now said that a team of officials from the ministry concerned, after its visit to the proposed site on April 27, 2023, had submitted a report outlining potential disadvantages associated with the new location.

“According to the report submitted by the technical team, the proposed land is a low-lying area, approximately seven metres below the approach road, requiring extensive earth filling of more than 10 metres to make it suitable for construction,” the letter said.

“The challenge is of obtaining a substantial quantity of good quality soil for filling and compacting the entire area of approximately 151 acres, which may not be readily available in the vicinity of Darbhanga. This could lead to increased project costs and a time-consuming process,” it said.

“The report said that the existing soil at the proposed site has swelling and shrinkage characteristics, raising concerns about the compaction and uniformity of the filled material. This instability could pose a serious threat to the structural integrity of the built infrastructure,” the letter said.

“The underlying soil, particularly the black cotton soil, has poor engineering characteristics. After filling the land, a ground improvement technique might be required, further adding to the project cost. The possibility of water logging in the surrounding lowland areas if structures are built on filled-up land, exacerbated by the low permeability of the natural ground surface layer,” it said.

“Taking all these factors into account, the ministry has concluded that the proposed site at Ekmi Shobhan Bypass, Anchal-Bahadurpur, Mouza-Balia is unsuitable for the establishment of AIIMS in Darbhanga. The state government has been requested to provide an alternative suitable land for the project in the larger public interest,” said the letter.

Meanwhile, asked for his response, CM Kumar told reporters on Monday that there was something else on the Centre’s mind. “Everything was settled. If you tell them or try to do some good work, they will not listen. Don’t worry. Good work will happen once BJP loses in 2024.”

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, however, blamed Kumar. Speaking at an event in Darbhanga on Sunday evening, he said, “Nitish Kumar doesn’t want the credit to go to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. History will not forgive him if AIIMS does not come up at Darbhanga. This will deprive the people of Mithilanchal of better health care,” he said.

“As many as 20 MPs of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) went on to write a letter to the Prime Minister, saying that the project be shifted to Saharsa. First Nitish Kumar said DMCH itself should be upgraded as AIIMS. Then he said that the state government will give land at another place, which was rejected by the technical team. The public will never forgive those who are doing political conspiracy with AIIMS,” he said.

Darbhanga MP Gopal Jee Thakur accused the state government of deliberately delaying the project.

“When the state government decided to move the location of proposed AIIMS from DMCH to Shobhan on the pressure of medical mafia and vested interests, who had also encroached upon DMCH land, it was very clear to me that the AIIMS project was being deliberately delayed,” he told HT.

Thakur claimed that the union government had included the proposed AIIMS in its budget of 2015-16. However, the state government granted cabinet approval for it only in November 2021, six years later.

However, Rishi Mishra, spokesperson of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the largest constituent in the ruling Grand Alliance (GA) in Bihar, said, “The people of Mithalanchal have been once again cheated by the BJP, which is playing dirty politics in the name of AIIMS. There could not have been a better place than Shoban for AIIMS. The people of Mithlanchal will teach the BJP a lesson for this betrayal.”