Shri Mansukh Mandaviya Chaired a Meeting at IIT Guwahati

<p><strong>Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Hon&rsquo;ble Minister of Health &amp; Family Welfare Chaired a Meeting at IIT Guwahati on Executing Major Infrastructure Projects at AIIMS</strong></p> <p style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;text-align:justify;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:normal;"><b><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;">GUWAHATI, Nov 21st, 2021: </span></b><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;">&nbsp;Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Hon&rsquo;ble Minister of Health &amp; Family Welfare, Govt. of India visited <span data-ogsc="rgb(5, 99, 193)" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193) !important; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" data-ogsc="rgb(5, 99, 193)" href="https://www.iitg.ac.in/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193) !important;" target="_blank">Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati</a></span> today and Chaired a meeting along with Dr. Keshav Mahanta, Hon&rsquo;ble Minister of Health, Govt. of Assam and Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati. The meeting was also attended by Prof. S. K. Kakoty, Deputy Director, Prof. P. K. Iyer, Dean, PRBR IIT Guwahati, Shri Kailash Karthik, DC Kamrup, Shri Siddharth Singh, (Commissioner &amp; Secretary-Health), Dr. Manoj Choudhury, ED-NHM, Prof. Gitanjali Batmanabane, Director, AIIMS Guwahati and representatives from construction companies implementing the AIIMS project on Sunday.</span></p> <p style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;text-align:justify;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:normal;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;">While reviewing the project implementation in the entirety, the Hon&rsquo;ble Health Minister Mandaviya has taken a tough stand on the delay caused in completion of the project. These included the major civil construction of buildings, roads, drains as well as procuring major instruments for full functioning of the institute. The timelines presented by the construction companies were not accepted since this was likely to further delay the completion of the project. The minister then suggested to have a joint meeting with all stakeholders, involve expert representatives from IIT Guwahati rather than any third party represenatives and provide a roadmap within a week to the Health Ministry and come up with a concrete date on the inauguration of the AIIMS, Guwahati campus. </span></p> <p style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;text-align:justify;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:normal;"><b><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;">Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Hon&rsquo;ble Minister of Health &amp; Family Welfare mentioned,</span></b><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;"> &ldquo;The delay in completing the construction of AIIMS Guwahati is very disappointing at a time when the country is making giant strides in fighting COVID pandemic, vaccine administering and all the healthcare parameters are on upswing across the country. In order to fulfill the aspirations of the citizens of Assam and northeast region who have to travel to far off states for better medical facilities, it is necessary to complete the construction work as well procure all necessary medical equipment immediately, so that the best medical facilities is available at the doorstep.&rdquo; </span></p> <p style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;text-align:justify;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:normal;"><b><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;">Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya also requested Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati to provide all technical support immediately to AIIMS</span></b><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;"> and ensure that the quality of materials used is audited, the project implementation delay is overcome and provide all other administrative support. Dr. Mandaviya also requested the Health Minister of Assam Dr. Keshab Mahanta to facilitate filling up of senior administrative positions from state cadre officials on priority to help the faster functioning of the institute recruitment an other official procedures.</span></p> <p style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;text-align:justify;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:normal;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;">Later the Hon&rsquo;ble ministers Dr. Mandaviya and Dr. Mahanta and officials of various departments, including IIT Guwahati officials also visited the AIIMS construction site at Changsari, Guwahati and reviewed the entire campus, including the progress of the construction works.</span></p> <p style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;text-align:justify;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:normal;"><b><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;">While welcoming the guests on campus, Director, IIT, Guwahati said</span></b><span lang="en-US" style="font-family:Century Gothic,sans-serif;"> that, &ldquo;IIT Guwahati which has a much larger campus has already demonstrated that a fully functional campus located few kilometers away from AIIMS, having similar terrain, has one of the best infrastructure facilities in the country and every support needed to AIIMS, Guwahati as directed by the Union Minister will be provided. Prof. Sitharam also mentioned that IIT Guwahati has made elaborate plans to set-up a medical school at the institute along with the support of the state government, and a pre-proposal for the same has been submitted to the health department already.&rdquo;&nbsp; </span></p>