Seven years after the foundation stone for AIIMS Madurai was laid, the institute's first batch of MBBS students is preparing to graduate without having studied on its permanent campus. With the Thoppur campus still under construction, students have completed most of their medical education from a temporary facility in Ramanathapuram, raising concerns over fragmented clinical training and the delayed rollout of one of India's flagship medical institutions.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Madurai, announced in 2019, has been functioning from the Ramanathapuram Government Medical College and Hospital, nearly 140 km from Thoppur, where the permanent campus is being built. While the institute has admitted successive MBBS batches, students have had to share classrooms, laboratories and clinical facilities with other medical institutions.

According to officials, construction of the permanent campus began only in March 2024, despite the foundation stone being laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2019. The Tamil Nadu government handed over the land in 2020, and the institute was formally established later that year, while a funding agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was signed in 2022.

Students from the inaugural MBBS batch say the prolonged delay has significantly affected their learning experience. Clinical postings have been spread across multiple institutions, including Ramanathapuram Government Medical College and Hospital, the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), and Madurai Medical College and Hospital, where the first batch is expected to complete its internship.

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Students have expressed disappointment that they may become the only AIIMS batch to graduate without receiving clinical training in a dedicated AIIMS hospital.

The delay has been attributed to multiple factors, including administrative hurdles, the COVID-19 pandemic, rising construction costs and global supply chain disruptions linked to the conflict in West Asia. The rocky terrain at the Thoppur site has also slowed construction.

Officials from Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the company executing the project, said two hostel blocks have already been completed, while at least one academic block is expected to be ready by August 2026. The institute plans to begin shifting students to the new campus in September–October 2026, although full Phase I completion is now expected by late 2027 or early 2028.

To accommodate incoming students, AIIMS Madurai has expanded facilities at its temporary campus, where six classrooms, two laboratories and a library are currently operational. Additional classrooms are also being prepared for the next academic session.

While the institute continues to function under interim arrangements, the experience of its first MBBS batches highlights the challenges of establishing new medical institutions and the importance of timely infrastructure development in delivering quality medical education.