‘Unsuitable’: Centre rejects new site proposed by Bihar govt for AIIMS Darbhanga

The Union ministry of health and family welfare has requested the Bihar government to provide an alternative land for the AIIMS Darbhanga project

The Union ministry of health and family welfare has rejected the new site proposed by the Bihar government for establishing Bihar’s second All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Darbhanga district terming the plot as “unsuitable” and requested the state government to provide an alternative land for the project.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. (File)

Secretary in the department of health and family welfare, government of India, 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 for the project has courted trouble. 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, 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.

Referring to the above letter from Pratyaya Amrit, the Union ministry in its latest missive has 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 7 meters below the approach road, requiring extensive earth filling of more than 10 meters to make it suitable for construction,” the letter said.

“The challenge 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 added.

“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, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi addressing a programme in Darbhanga on Sunday evening, said that history will never forgive CM Nitish Kumar with regard to the proposed AIIMS in Darbhanga.

“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 Mithlanchal 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 AIIMS of Darbhanga should be transferred to Saharsa. First Nitish Kumar said that 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. T

“The state government had handed over 81 acres in the first phase on DMCH campus. Doctor’s quarters were evacuated and demolished, and nearly ₹13 crore worth earth filling work was done to facilitate AIIMS construction. The Centre, in the meantime, had also appointed the executive director for the Darbhanga AIIMS. After all this, shifting the location away citing frivolous grounds only showed their (the state government’s) ill intention”, the MP said.

However, Rishi Mishra, spokesperson of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), an ally in the Grand Alliance (GA) government in the state, 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.”