Kerala’s AIIMS deadlock: UDF govt fails to do homework, offers unavailable land, skips shortlisting

Kasaragod: In May, soon after K Muraleedharan took charge as Health Minister, he was asked where AIIMS should be set up in Kerala. His answer overturned the LDF government’s position and revived hopes in districts lobbying for the premier health institute.

​“Whichever place the Union government says is feasible, we are ready to acquire land. We are not stubborn about any location,” Muraleedharan said, naming Kozhikode’s Kinaloor, the LDF government’s choice, along with Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha and Kasaragod as prospective locations. “(Availability of) land is the only criterion,” he said.

Two months later, however, the minister singled out Thiruvananthapuram. In a July 10 letter to Union Health Minister JP Nadda, Muraleedharan said the new government was forwarding 10 proposals from seven districts, but singled out Thiruvananthapuram. "I would like to convey that the land adjacent to the Open Jail at Nettukaltheri in Kattakada taluk of Thiruvananthapuram district would be a suitable site, among the various plots identified." Onmanorama reviewed this letter, accessed through an RTI query.

The problem with the minister’s letter is not that he favoured Thiruvananthapuram even while publicly maintaining a bipartisan stance. It is that the state appears not to have checked whether the Nettukaltheri land was actually available. The state government had already proposed dividing the open jail land among BrahMos Aerospace Trivandrum Ltd, the Sashastra Seema Bal and the National Forensic Science University. In December 2025, the Supreme Court approved this.

When Onmanorama contacted the minister, he admitted that no land was available for AIIMS in Thiruvananthapuram. “The site we had identified had to be given to BrahMos, as per the Supreme Court judgment. A difficulty has arisen now in Thiruvananthapuram. But I have asked officials to look at other available sites in Thiruvananthapuram,” he said.

The lapse is not the most troubling part of Kerala’s pursuit of AIIMS since 2014. The bigger issue is the UDF government appears to have given up the state’s responsibility in site selection, examining competing proposals and sending the Union government a feasible shortlist.

In 2014, the then Union Health Minister wrote to then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy -- the first letter to the state on AIIMS -- asking his government to identify "three or four suitable alternative locations for setting up a new AIIMS" in Kerala. Approximately 200 acres of land at a location is required for setting up the super-speciality hospital-cum-teaching institution, it said.

​In 2016, PMSSY laid the framework for identifying the locations for new AIIMS. The highest weightages among eight parameters were given to the "early availability of suitable land" (20) and gaps in tertiary health care facilities (15).

"Instead of applying those parameters and narrowing the choices to four, the UDF government has now forwarded all proposals. Will the central team visit the 10 sites across the state? The UDF government's stance will only delay the process," said A K Prakash, an RTI activist tracking the AIIMS issue since 2014. "For a project Kerala has been pursuing for 12 years, this amounts to a remarkable lack of ownership," he said.

Oommen Chandy had responded to Harsh Vardhan's letter immediately, identifying four locations for the project: Kinaloor in Kozhikode, land adjacent to the Open Jail at Nettukaltheri in Thiruvananthapuram, Government Medical College land in Kottayam and HMT land in Ernakulam. The Union government, however, did not select Kerala for an AIIMS in the subsequent years. When the LDF came to power in 2016, the government settled on Kinaloor. In 2024, it transferred 151.58 acres at Kinaloor to the Directorate of Medical Education for AIIMS, and informed the Union Health Ministry that steps were on to acquire another 50 acres. The Pinarayi Vijayan government repeatedly wrote to the Centre for an expert site inspection. In February 2026, the Kerala High Court directed the Centre to conduct a feasibility study of the Kinaloor proposal. Nothing happened.

The LDF government, however, stood by Kinaloor and refused to entertain requests to include other districts.

10 proposals, no state shortlist
When the UDF government came to power in May, it sought proposals from across Kerala, received them from seven legislators and Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan, besides an NGO and a private citizen. All 10 proposals were forwarded to the Union Health Ministry.

The list included two competing proposals from Kasaragod district alone. Apart from Unnithan’s proposal, it included Trikaripur MLA Sandeep Varier’s pitch for Cheemeni, on the border of Kannur district. Varier’s proposal was not discussed in the district UDF or backed by any study. Apart from the availability of land, little else supported the proposal. A livid Unnithan met Chief Minister V D Satheesan, following which a detailed proposal for Kasaragod, prepared by Collector Arjun Pandian, was included in the list.

The other MLAs who sent proposals were Minister Anoop Jacob (Piravam); Deputy Speaker Shanimol Osman (Aroor); V T Sooraj (Balussery); K Binimon (Vaikom); and T J Saneesh Kumar Joseph (Chalakudy). The government also forwarded a proposal from Janakeeya Prathikarana Vedi for Peruva in Mulakulam panchayat in Kottayam, and one from Pramji Paul Vazhappillil, an advocate from Kunnamkulam in Thrissur. Then there is BJP leader and Union minister Suresh Gopi, the Thrissur MP, who is rooting for Alappuzha.

“The state government evaded responsibility and displayed a lack of accountability by forwarding all 10 proposals to the Union government,” said K Shreekanth, BJP’s Kerala North Zone president, also alleging a lack of understanding of the objective of PMSSY.

“Either Minister Muraleedharan and the state government are admitting that Kerala does not have adequate tertiary care even in the capital district of Thiruvananthapuram, or it is evident that they have not read the objective,” Shreekanth said.