NIMS Bibinagar campus to house AIIMS

HYDERABAD: The little-known Bibinagar town, 35 km from here, could well emerge as the medical hub of the new Telangana state in the near future.

In a new thinking that could alter the health care situation in the state, the Telangana government is understood to be toying with the idea of offering the Bibinagar campus of Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) to the Centre for establishing an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

While an AIIMS is coming up in Andhra Pradesh as part of the promises made by Centre during bifurcation, the NDA government has recently assured Telangana MPs that it will consider a similar facility for the TS. That's where matters stand.

In the normal course, the entire funding required for establishing an AIIMS including on acquisition of land, construction of buildings and equipment will have to be borne by the Centre.

To make things easy for the Union government and reduce the burden on it, chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao is said to have, in principle, okayed the proposal to offer the Bibinagar campus for the purpose.

Yet to become operational, the Bibinagar campus is located on a 180-acre site with eight lakh square feet of constructed area. In other words, a good part of the infrastructure required for AIIMS is already available and it is only a question of adding/upgrading facilities required for a national-level institute.

With medical tourism expected to gain momentum in the years to come, location of AIIMS at Bibinagar, close to the international airport and within a few kilometres from the Outer Ring Road (ORR), could provide the much-needed strategic advantage.

If the Centre accepts the TS government's proposal, the establishment of AIIMS will happen with an associated medical college. Providing some more land to accommodate AIIMS (which requires 200 acres) and a medical college will not be a difficult proposition given the availability of government land in and around Bibinagar.

Interestingly, a few years ago, the Centre had sanctioned a regional institute of paramedical sciences to NIMS (located at Punjagutta in the city) with an outlay of Rs 90 crore.

This has not taken off for a variety of reasons and it was only recently that its director wrote to the Centre urging it to relocate the institute to the Bibinagar campus. The Centre has agreed to the suggestion.

At another level, the renowned Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) is said to be planning to establish a research centre at Bibinagar in the close vicinity of the NIMS campus.

Thus, if the plan works as per the current thinking, the Bibinagar facility could soon turn into a massive medical hub with AIIMS, a medical college, a paramedical institute and a CCMB research facility.

Advantages of Having AIIMS at Bibinagar

A national institute comes with its own advantages: high quality faculty and, consequently, top-class treatment for patients

Recurring cost will be borne by the Centre even if TS offers to share a part of the cost on building AIIMS

Already beset with multiple problems, it will be difficult for NIMS to run the Bibinagar campus, by remote control, from Hyderabad

With a well-laid ORR around the city, it will be easy even for patients from Hyderabad to go for treatment at AIIMS with Bibinagar being 35 km from city

It will be easy to recruit work-force for Class-IV jobs from nearby towns and villages

They could even be accommodated in the hundreds of Rajiv Swagruha houses at Bibinagar which are still left un-allotted

A Medical Hub in the Making

All India Institute of Medical Sciences

Regional institute of paramedical sciences

CCMB research centre

KCR govt likely to offer the 180-acre facility to Centre