Multi-crore healthcare plan for paramilitary forces unveiled

An ambitious Rs 1,368 crore project to set up the first-ever Army patterned Research and Referral hospital and an AIIMS-like college to render tertiary and specialised treatment to paramilitary personnel and their families was unveiled today.
The institution, Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences (CAPFIMS), is expected to come up in a period of two years on a 51.41 acre campus in south Delhi's Maidan Garhi area.
It will render tertiary and specialised treatment to troops and families of forces like CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB, NSG and Assam Rifles which function under the command of the Union Home Ministry.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the need for having such an institution for the over 9-lakh personnel strong paramilitary forces "was being felt for a long time".
The hospital will boast of some of the best medical care infrastructure in the country which is currently deployed by the AIIMS and R and R of the Army in Delhi.
Besides having a multi-speciality hospital, the CAPFIMS will also have a medical college, two separate institutes of nursing and paramedics, a residential campus for students and doctors, an air ambulance unit and a 24x7 mobile hospital unit for the troops.
The project, which was conceptualised by the Home Ministry in 2009, got an in-principle approval of the Union Cabinet in 2011.

Once operational, the CAPFIMS will have 1,500 beds, spread across speciality, general and ICU wards while the AIIMS patterned medical college will offer a total of 530 seats in various streams of medicine, paramedics and nursing.