Vastu pooja performed for AIIMS in Madurai; MP slams move as publicity stunt

L&T performed the pooja after it received a Letter of Acceptance from AIIMS officials; the duration of the project is 33 months from commencement of construction; Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan said offical protocol was not followed for the event

AIIMS Madurai construction company L&T performed a vastu pooja, on the earmarked sire in Thoppur in Madurai on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Following a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on March 4, 2024, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the construction company for AIIMS Madurai, performed a vastu pooja at the site earmarked for the hospital in Thoppur in Madurai on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.

Officials of AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) Madurai said that a meeting was held with a team from L&T on Monday, March 4, and some critical aspects like the contract agreements, priority of construction phases and other aspects of the project were discussed. The LoA was officially issued to the construction company after that meeting, by M. Hanumantha Rao, executive director and CEO of AIIMS Madurai. The duration of the project has been fixed as 33 months from the date of commencement of the construction. 

Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan, speaking to The Hindu said both the Central government and the construction company did not follow official protocol. They did not invite any of the elected representatives or the officials of the district administration, including the Collector, for the vastu pooja, he charged.  

“This can be only seen as a publicity stunt performed by the Central government to fool the public. If they are doing it now, why did they not perform the same pooja, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Madurai last week,” he asked.

Mr. Venkatesan further added that as demanded in the Parliament, he wanted to see a bar chart describing phase-wise construction development of the hospital. “If the ‘pooja’ is genuine, why did they remove all the boards placed at the site after people started questioning them,” he asked further.  

An official of the AIIMS Madurai said that this was just a pooja performed by the construction company and should not be taken as an official event.

The foundation stone for the AIIMS Madurai project was laid by PM Narendra Modi in January 2019. On February 28, Mr. Modi, while speaking at a public meeting in Tirunelveli, had said the Centre could not implement many of its ambitious projects in the State, including the AIIMS in Madurai, because of the non-cooperation of the DMK government.