Ramky to invest Rs 500cr in health, education

Hyderabad-based Ramky Group is planning to invest Rs 500 crore for setting up hospitals and educational institutions over the next three years. The group is into consultancy and real estate business among others.

Speaking to Business Standard, group director M Goutham Reddy said they would construct two 200-bed hospitals in Hyderabad, a 100-bed hospital in Bangalore and a 50-bed hospital in Warangal. Each building will involve about Rs 25 crore excluding the land costs.

Similarly, it plans to construct a school each in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. The schools will come up on about 4 acre each at an investment of about Rs 25 crore. Each school will have a capacity to accommodate about 1,000 students.

“There is good demand for hospitals and schools,” he said, adding the company was not looking at operating these on its own. It will lease them out on a mid to long term basis. The group has amassed about 1,200 acres.

Ramky recently bagged a Rs 250-crore building contract from the Andhra Pradesh government for the IIIT at Nuzvid in Krishna district. Its order book stands at Rs 5,560 crore to be executed over the next two years.

Meanwhile, the group which already produces power from waste, is contemplating setting up a 200-Mw coal-based project in Visakhapatnam to cater to chemical and pharmaceutical industries at the Jawaharlal Nehru Pharmacity there. The plan is still in the conceptual stage and will require about Rs 900 crore.

In 2007-08, it registered a turnover of Rs 2,780 crore and is targeting about Rs 15,000 crore in three years on the back of land bank and new projects. The group, which is not listed yet, has got the final observation from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for its infrastructure vertical - Ramky Infrastructure. “We are studying if this is the right to time to get listed when the markets are taking a beating,” Reddy said.

The company is also looking at water and waste water management and bulk material handling. It is currently handling industrial, hospital and municipal solid and electronic waste.