Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda has inspected a new AIIMS shelter for patients and their attendants at AIIMS New Delhi, during a visit on 29 October 2026 to review cleanliness, sanitation and waste management. Nadda visited the institute under Special Campaign 6, a government-wide cleanliness drive run in central government offices and hospitals since 2021. During the visit, he inspected the newly constructed Patient Waiting Lounge at the AIIMS Trauma Centre Extension Campus, which is proposed to be used as an Aashray shelter for patients and attendants.
The AIIMS shelter facility was developed by Bharat Electronics Limited, Ghaziabad, under its corporate social responsibility initiative. It has a revised built-up area of 2,970 square metres and a designed seating capacity of 897 persons. The building comprises primary and secondary waiting areas, entry and exit points, ramps, toilets and ancillary facilities. Officials said the completed facility is proposed to be used as an Aashray shelter to provide safe, dignified and weather-protected temporary accommodation for economically disadvantaged patients and attendants who travel to AIIMS for treatment.
Why the AIIMS shelter matters for outstation patients
AIIMS New Delhi draws patients from every part of the country, and many arrive without a place to stay. Patients and attendants often wait in corridors, outside wards or on hospital grounds, whatever the weather, while they wait for appointments, test results or surgery dates. That wait can last days, and families with little money face the added cost of rooms, food and transport in Delhi. A shelter inside the hospital campus removes the need to find paid accommodation for every night of a hospital visit, and it keeps patients close to the wards where they will be treated.
AIIMS already operates Aashray as a 24-hour humanitarian shelter facility, supporting patients and attendants travelling from outside Delhi. The new Patient Waiting Lounge extends that idea to a larger, purpose-built space at the Trauma Centre Extension Campus. With 897 seats, the AIIMS shelter can hold far more people than a single ward waiting area, and its layout, with separate primary and secondary waiting areas, ramps and toilets, is designed for people who may be ill, elderly or travelling with children. The facility is proposed, rather than already open as a shelter, so patients will need a formal decision on its use before they can stay there.
What the AIIMS shelter visit covered beyond the building
Nadda reviewed sanitation and waste management initiatives at AIIMS under Special Campaign 6 and acknowledged sanitation workers during the visit. Officials briefed him on the institute’s cleanliness work, and the ministry said electricity expenditure was about Rs 1.98 crore lower during January to October 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. The briefing covered the wider housekeeping effort that keeps wards, corridors and waiting areas usable, since a shelter only helps patients if the building around it is clean, safe and well maintained.
Special Campaign 6 is a periodic government-wide drive to improve hygiene and remove pending work in public spaces, and hospitals are a visible test of that drive because patients judge care partly by the state of the building. Clean toilets, clear entry and exit routes, ramps for patients with limited mobility and regular waste collection are basic requirements, and a visit by the health minister puts those details in front of senior officials. The inspection of the waiting lounge sat alongside that review, linking the new building to the daily work of keeping a large hospital clean.
What happens next for the AIIMS shelter
The next step for the AIIMS shelter is a decision to use the completed Patient Waiting Lounge as an Aashray shelter, with rules on who can stay, for how long and how places are allocated. AIIMS will need staff to run the facility, manage entry and keep the space clean and safe overnight, and it will need to tell patients arriving from outside Delhi that the shelter exists and how to reach it. Without that information, a new building can stand empty while families still wait outside wards, as they have done for years.
Other AIIMS shelter projects face the same pressure, since patients travel long distances for specialist care that is not available near home. An AIIMS shelter that works in Delhi could be copied elsewhere, but only if the Delhi facility opens, fills and is maintained. Nadda’s visit on 29 October put the AIIMS shelter building, its 897 seats and its proposed use as a shelter on the record, and the test now is whether the proposed shelter becomes a place where patients and attendants can wait in safety.