Guwahati, April 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today dedicated the first AIIMS in the North East, built at a cost of Rs 1,123 crore at Sangsari near here, to the nation. The super-specialty hospital will provide healthcare not only to people in Assam but also to all other northeastern states. The hospital has been opened with 750 beds capacity.
The foundation of this AIIMS was laid by PM Modi about six years back on May 26, 2017.
The PM also virtually inaugurated three medical colleges at Nalbari, Nagaon and Kokrajhar.
The 500-bed tertiary care teaching hospitals with 24 undergraduate departments in the three medical colleges will start with 100 annual MBBS student intake, taking the total MBBS student intake to 1500 in Assam.
He also laid the foundation of the Rs 546 crore Assam Advanced Healthcare Innovation Institute (AAHII), a joint initiative of the state government and IIT Guwahati.
AAHII aims to promote inventions and innovations in medicine and healthcare, nurturing multidisciplinary research and development in frontier areas of medicine by marrying engineering with healthcare.
The prime minister also ceremonially launched the distribution of 1.1 crore Ayushman cards to beneficiaries who will be able to avail cashless healthcare medical treatment benefits up to Rs five lakh with these cards. He physically handed over the Ayushman cards to three beneficiaries including two women in the function.
With the inauguration of three more medical colleges and hospitals in asam today, the total number of medical colleges and hospitals in the state has gone up to 13 while the target of the state government is to set up 24 medical colleges and hospitals in the state in next three to four years time, according to the chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The intake capacity of students in medical colleges in Assam has now gone up to 1500 a year.