New Delhi, Aug 17 : All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director M Srinivas has written to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), urging it to take over the repair and maintenance of its existing buildings. In his letter addressed to Rajesh Kumar Kaushal, Director General of CPWD, Srinivas wrote: "AIIMS, New Delhi was established in 1956 and has expanded to over 3,000 beds in the past 65 years. AIIMS has also added multiple clinical, research and residential buildings and facilities during the said period. However, our engineering services have not kept pace with the pace of our growth and we are having challenges in appropriate and cost effective maintenance of our buildings and their engineering systems." "Also, our engineering division does not have an officer above the rank of Superintending Engineer which is severely limiting the value of the contracts for which technical sanction can be accorded within the engineering department," he said. The Director further said, "After thorough review of the functioning of engineering services department of AIIMS, and keeping in view the fact that CPWD has been maintaining the vast majority of Government buildings, it has been decided to request CPWD to take over the repair and maintenance of the various buildings for the next three-five years while we strengthen our engineering division by creating necessary posts and recruiting competent people on the same." "I request your support and will be grateful if you could depute suitable officers to discuss with our engineering department regarding the same and formalize the modalities for CPWD to take over the repair and maintenance of the existing functional buildings of AIIMS including those in Ayur Vigyan Nagar Campus and Asiad Village Campus," he wrote. /IANS