PM Modi inaugurates AIIMS Guwahati; celebrates Rongali Bihu

DISPUR, Assam: On his one-day visit to Assam, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi inaugurated North East’s first All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Guwahati and announced three other medical colleges in the state.

He also launched a healthcare scheme to provide free medical treatment worth ₹5 lakh each year to 11 million beneficiaries and laid the foundation stone of the Assam Advanced Health Care Innovation Institute (AAHII) at the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati.

The newly built AIIMS campus is one-of-a-kind healthcare facility in this region, costing ₹1,123 crore and a total capacity of 750 beds and an annual intake capacity of 100 medical students per year.

Three other medical colleges at Nalbari, Nagaon, and Kokrajhar were inaugurated that have been built with an approximate cost of ₹615 crore, ₹600 crore, and ₹535 crore respectively.

While addressing the gathering, Modi highlighted the initiatives taken by the government in the healthcare sector and the progress it has made over the past nine years.

While attending the same event, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister of Assam, praised Prime Minister Modi for the development projects in the state and said, “We are trying to fulfill the PM’s goal of having a medical college in each district. Today, the state got three new ones taking that tally to 12. In the next three to four years, we will take that figure to 23 medical colleges in Assam.”

Later on the same day, PM Modi took part in the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Guwahati High Court and then attended the largest Bihu dance performance by over 11,000 participants which made it to the Guinness Book of World Records in the folk-dance category.