AIIMS Awantipora OPD to Open Before December 2026

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda reviewed the building and opening of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Awantipora in Jammu and Kashmir on 5 November 2026, and pressed the agencies to finish the remaining work quickly.

What stage the project is at

The minister was told that every major building at the institute is finished and that construction is close to complete. Phase-I covers the OPD Registration Block, the OPD Block, residential buildings and the hostels set aside for the campus; these are done, and inventory verification and formal handover are under way. The rest of the academic, administrative, hospital, residential and hostel blocks are being taken up in phases. Shri Nadda praised the Central Public Works Department and the other agencies for pushing the work along despite the difficult terrain of the site, and asked them to wrap up the leftover construction by March 2027.

Three dates to remember

Equipment and staff

Procurement approval has gone out for 180 medical equipment items worth Rs 59.41 crore, and Notices of Award have been issued for 140 of them. Buying of OPD instruments, laboratory furniture and medical and administrative furniture is at various stages. The minister told HITES and the Executive Director of the institute to work together and speed up these purchases, insisting that everything needed to start the out-patient department be in place first.

On staffing, the ministry has cleared the engagement of essential manpower for running the OPD and the services around it, covering 652 positions in all, among them 150 security personnel, besides hospital attendants and housekeeping and sanitation staff. Shri Nadda asked for faculty recruitment to be fast-tracked and for non-faculty hiring to move in step. He also reviewed campus security, transport links, the institute's website and operational tie-ups, and said AIIMS Awantipora, CPWD, HITES and the local administration must coordinate closely. The institute, he said, would widen access to tertiary care and specialised treatment in Jammu and Kashmir and strengthen medical education in the region.