Bilaspur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), at Kothipura in Bilaspur district.

This 750 bed hospital will be built at a cost of approximately Rs. 1350 crore. In addition to healthcare, it will also provide medical education at the under-graduate and post-graduate level, besides nursing.

Initially, the AIIMS will have 20 super specialty blocks having 750 bed capacities. The AIIMS will have intake of 100 MBBS seats and 60 nursing seats per batch per annum.

All the departments will be interconnected with commercial and residential area inside the campus.

The Prime Minister laid foundation stone of Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) to be set up at Saloh in district Una. As much as 60 acre of land was made available for the purpose in 2014 by the Technical Education department of the state government for paving the way for construction of IIIT. The IIIT will be constructed at the cost of Rs. 128 crore.

The Government of India will bear the 50 percent cost, while 35 percent of the finances will be borne by State government and the remaining 15 percent by industry partners, namely HP Power Corporation and HP Power Transmission Corporation.

Initially, three courses have been started in IIIT, the guest classes of which were started in NIT Hamirpur for academic session 2014-15. The courses available are computer science engineering, electronics and communication engineering and information technology with an annual intake capacity of 160. This is the 20th IIIT in the country.

The Prime Minister also inaugurated the Steel Processing Plant constructed at Kandrori, in district Kangra completed with an outlay of Rs 70 crore and will have steel production capacity of one lakh tonne per annum. The Steel Authority of India started the work of steel plant in 2014. This will give direct and indirect employment to the youth of the state.

He also launched Tata Digital Nerve Centre for Bilaspur and Kullu districts for quality primary health care. It will facilitate the quality health care in rural areas of the state. An initiative of Tata Consultancy services, the digital nerve centre has touched 15 million people throughout the country.

Earlier, the Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh welcomed the Prime Minister and other dignitaries at Luhnu helipad in Bilaspur.

Governor Acharya Devvrat, Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union Steel Minister Birendra Singh, Union Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, former Chief Ministers Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal, Union MoS for Steel Vishnu Deo Sahai, Union MoS HRD Satya Pal Singh, State Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur, Technical Education Minister G.S. Bali, MP Anurag Thakur and others were present on the occasion.