MADURAI: The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan agreement between Indian and Japanese governments for the construction of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Madurai has been signed, said the Centre in its recent RTI reply.
The significant development comes more than two years after the foundation stone for the premier medical facility was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Tenkasi-based RTI activist R Pandiaraja had sought information from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the construction of AIIMS in Tamil Nadu in Madurai and the signing of JICA loan agreement.
Responding to his RTI queries, the Centre submitted that the loan agreement has been signed between Government of India and Government of Japan for setting up AIIMS in Tamil Nadu. “However, further details can only be shared once the signed loan agreement is received (by the Department of Health and Family Welfare).” Notably, the inordinate delay in the establishment of AIIMS in Tamil Nadu, announced in 2015, was the cynosure of all eyes and invited sarcastic remarks from the Opposition parties during the campaign for the recently-concluded Assembly election.
In one such incident, DMK’s Youth Wing Secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin, while campaigning in Sattur in Virudhunagar district on March 24 held a brick in his hand and said that he had brought with him the AIIMS that has been built in Madurai. It may be recalled that in a similar RTI reply received by Pandiaraja in December last, the Centre stated that JICA would be providing 85% of the total cost of establishment of AIIMS in Madurai which is around Rs 2,000 crore. It added that the JICA loan agreement was likely to be signed by March and that the construction would commence only after JICA loan approval.