Bilaspur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur in the presence of state chief minister Jairam Thakur, Union Minister Anurag Thakur, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda.

AIIMS Bilaspur is a state-of-the-art hospital with 18 speciality and 17 super speciality departments, 18 modular operation theatres and 750 beds with 64 ICU beds, that has been constructed at a cost of more than Rs 1,470 crores. Spread over 247 acres, the hospital is equipped with 24 hours emergency and dialysis facilities, modern diagnostic machines like ultrasonography, CT scan, MRI etc, Amrit Pharmacy and Jan Aushadhi Kendra and also a 30 bedded AYUSH block.

The Hospital has also set up the Centre for Digital Health to provide health services in the tribal and inaccessible tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh. Also, specialist health services will be provided by the hospital through health camps in the inaccessible tribal and high Himalayan regions like Kaza, Saluni, and Keylong. It will admit 100 students for MBBS courses and 60 students for nursing courses every year.

"Prime Minister's vision and commitment to strengthen health services across the country is being showcased again through the inauguration of AIIMS Bilaspur. The hospital, whose foundational stone was also laid by the Prime Minister in October 2017, is being established under the Central sector scheme Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in an official statement on Tuesday.

PM Modi is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone of around 31 km long project for four laning of the National Highway from Pinjore to Nalagarh on NH-105, worth over Rs 1,690 crore. The project road is a major connecting link for the traffic from Ambala, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Solan/Shimla going towards Bilaspur, Mandi and Manali. "About 18 km stretch of this four-lane national highway falls under Himachal Pradesh and the remaining portion falls in Haryana," PMO statement read.

This highway will ensure better transport facilities in Nalagarh-Baddi, the industrial hub of Himachal Pradesh, and will also give a fillip to further industrial development in the region. As per the PMO, this highway will also boost tourism in the state. The Prime Minister will further lay the foundation stone of the Medical Device Park at Nalagarh, that is to be built at a cost of about Rs 350 crore. A Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) of more than Rs 800 crore have already been signed for setting up industries in this Medical Device Park.

The project will significantly enhance employment opportunities in the region. Later, PM Modi will inaugurate the Government Hydro Engineering College at Bandla, before participating in the Kullu Dussehra celebrations. The International Kullu Dussehra Festival will be celebrated from October 5 to 11 at the Dhalpur Ground of Kullu.

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The Festival is unique in the sense that it is the congregation of more than 300 Deities of the Valley. On the first day of the Festival, the Deities in their well-decorated palanquins pay their obeisance at the temple of the Chief Deity Bhagwan Raghunath Ji and then proceed to the Dhalpur Ground. Prime Minister will witness this divine Rath Yatra and the grand assembly of the Deities in the historic Kullu Dussehra celebrations.

It will be the first time ever that the Prime Minister of the country is participating in the Kullu Dussehra celebrations.