Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the launch of new facilities such as AIIMS, Guwahati and medical colleges will strengthen healthcare infrastructure in Assam and the entire Northeast.

He said his government had worked hard to ensure dramatic improvement in social infrastructure in the Northeast over the last 9 years.

“The Northeast was distant for earlier governments...we have served with dedication to bring it near,” the prime minister said, while speaking at a function to dedicate the first AIIMS in the North East, built at a cost of Rs 1,123 crore, to the nation.

He pointed out that, “Social infrastructure has significantly improved in the Northeast in last nine years,” while spesaking at the function held at the AIIMS, Guwahati campus.

Attacking the opposition, Modi asserted, “We make our policies on the basis of countrymen first ... (but) the opposition is credit hungry and credit hungry people destroy the nation.” He added, “ We work with 'Seva Bhaav' (spirit of service) for the people”.

Modi also virtually inaugurated three medical colleges at Nalbari, Nagaon and Kokrajhar.

The 500-bed tertiary care teaching hospitals with 24 undergraduate departments in the three medical colleges will start with 100 annual MBBS student intake, taking the total MBBS student intake to 1500 in Assam.

He also laid the foundation of the Rs 546 crore Assam Advanced Healthcare Innovation Institute (AAHII), a joint initiative of the state government and IIT Guwahati.

AAHII aims to promote inventions and innovations in medicine and healthcare, nurturing multidisciplinary research and development in frontier areas of medicine by marrying engineering with healthcare.

The prime minister also launched the distribution of 1.1 crore Ayushman cards to beneficiaries who will be able to avail cashless healthcare medical treatment benefits up to Rs five lakh with these cards.

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