All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalyani

In 1994, after talking to the central government, Prasanta Sur, health minister in the then Left government, announced the initial decision to build an AIIMS-style hospital in Kalyani. Pranab Mukherjee, the then chairman of the Planning Commission, also approved Rs 10 crore in the sector. On September 26 that year, the then President Shankar Dayal Sharma laid the foundation stone of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Science and Research on the land. It was then said that it would be developed as an AIIMS-style hospital.[6][7] AIIMS Kalyani was set up as part of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) initiative, announced by the Government of India in 2003 and officially launched in March 2006, for the purpose of "correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable/reliable tertiary healthcare services", through setting up AIIMS Delhi-like institutions and upgrading government medical colleges.[8][9]

Establishing an AIIMS in West Bengal was proposed in 2012 as part of the 12th Five-Year Plan, with the original location proposed being Raiganj, 400 kilometres (250 mi) from the capital Kolkata, but by June 2014, the proposed location was changed to Kalyani, only 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the capital.[10]

Main entrance of AIIMS Kalyani

The AIIMS was officially announced in July 2014,[11] in the budget speech for 2014–15,[12] where the Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley announced a budget of ₹500 crore (equivalent to ₹799 crore or US$100 million in 2023) for setting up the four "Phase-IV" AIIMSs, in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and the Purvanchal region in Uttar Pradesh.[11] In March 2015, the union cabinet gave an official approval for the location, on a 150-acre lot in the village Basantapur, near Kalyani.[13] A budget of ₹1,754 crore (US$220 million) was approved in October 2015[14] and the 179.82-acre lot of land was handed over from the West Bengal government to the central government in December of that year.[15]

The construction work of the institute's campus started in 2016.[16] The institute was established by the Union Government in exercise of the powers conferred by the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 3 of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Act, 1956 (25 of 1956) as per Ministry of Health and Family Welfare notification on 24 January 2018.[1] The mentoring institution was AIIMS Bhubaneswar,[17] the first director appointed was Dipika Deka[18] and Chitra Sarkar selected as president.[19] Deka resigned in May 2019, leaving the director's position open.[20] In March 2020, Ramji Singh was appointed as new director.[21]

The institute became operational with the first batch of 50 MBBS students,[22] which one of the six AIIMSs to become operational in 2019.[23] Classes started in September 2019.[17] Temporarily, classes of the first batch were taken at the College of Medicine & JNM Hospital campus in Kalyani, while students were already staying at the hostel on the campus.[17] In 2020, the number of MBBS seats was increased from 50 to 125.[24]

On 1 March 2022, first Academic season of B.Sc(Nursing) course with 60 number of seats capacity inaugurated by institute president.[25] In November 2022, Institute has been permitted to run postgraduate courses with 26 number of seats allocated for INI-CET Januaray 2023 seassion.[26]

The institute is governed by a board of administrative officers or governing body, which includes president and director of the institute, chief secretary of the Government of West Bengal, the vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta, director of IIT Kharagpur, secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and 5 others.[30] They monitor the operation of the institute and its funding. There are three committees are within the governing body: Standing Academic Committee, Standing Selection Committee and Standing Finance Committee.[31] In November 2018, Chitra Sarkar became the 1st president of the institute.[19] The institute is funded by the Government of India.[32][33]

The institute has 34 departments, which includes Anaesthesiology, Biochemistry, Anatomy, Cardiology, Physiology and 29 others.[34]

For MBBS courses, admission is based on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET–UG) rankings. Meanwhile, for postgraduate courses (MD, MS and MDS), one has to take an National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET–PG) conducted by the National Board of Examinations. A merit list is prepared on the basis of the examination results, on the basis of which list the students are admitted. A candidate must have MBBS degree to get admission in MD or MS course.

The institution admits medical students as well as nursing students. For B.Sc. nursing course, students need to clear the AIIMS Nursing Entrance Test. Admission is done on the basis of students's rank in merit list.

The institute offers both Undergraduate and Postgraduate degree courses. MBBS and B.Sc. Nursing courses are offered under Undergraduate degree. MD, MS, and MDS courses are offered under Postgraduate degree. The institute offers MD, MS, and MDS courses in 16 different subjects.[35]

AIIMS Kalyani has been closely associated with research activities since its establishment. Research in medicine and allied sciences is one of the major functions of AIIMS Kalyani. A total of 12 research projects have been initiated by the faculty members of AIIMS Kalyani in 2019–20. The institute runs a Short Term Studentship (STS) scheme under Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).[36] The Institute signed MoU with another premier Institution IISER Kolkata for further Research & Development oppotutnities on Jan 2020.[37] signed a MoU for development of a collaborative platform for academic and research promotion and potential faculty and students exchange program in near future with IIIT Kalyani in September 2021.[38] In July 2023 signed an agreement with IIT Kharagpur for collaboration in education, research and medical services.[39]

The central library at the campus was started in March 2021. It was inaugurated on March 8, 2021, by Executive Director Dr. Ramji Singh. Unified Library Services for AIIMS Kalyani Central Library started on 27 March 2021.[40]

The library building consists of three floors (ground, first and second floors) with a carpet area of 2,608.596 square feet and a seating capacity of about 250 persons.[40] The library is open up to 9pm, 7 days a week including Sundays and holidays, except national holidays. Its current collection consists of 800 printed books. The library also has a large number of e-resource material.[40]