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           | Patna, Feb 3  : The Patna High Court Tuesday asked the central government to invite  tenders in February for construction of the Jai Prakash Narayan All India  Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Patna and to start construction by  June this year.A bench of the  court gave the order after hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by  the Council for Protection of Public Rights and Welfare.
 
 The Patna high court had last month sought a  progress report on the AIIMS in Patna  from the central government.
 
 The then Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had laid the foundation stone  of the prestigious medical institute at Phulwari Sharif in Bihar on Jan 3, 2004  and Rs.300 crore (Rs.three billion) was allotted for the speedy completion of  the project
 
 The proposed AIIMS in Patna was part of the central government project  envisaging setting up AIIMS-like institutes in Patna (Bihar), Raipur  (Chhattisgarh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Jodhpur  (Rajasthan) and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand). However, the project is already  delayed.
 
 The project was first proposed in 2003 by the then National Democratic Alliance  (NDA) government and cleared in 2006 by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).  The new institutions were supposed to come up in three years.
 
 Each institute was to have a 960-bed hospital and provide undergraduate medical  education for 100 students per year. Postgraduate and postdoctoral courses are  also proposed to be offered.
 (IANS) 
      
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