Global to set up hospitals in Mumbai, Kolkata

As part of its aim to build a national footprint and expand its presence to all major metros in the country by 2010-11, Hyderabad-based Global Hospitals is firming up plans to set up hospitals in Mumbai and Kolkata at an investment of about Rs 400 crore.

"We will be performing the ground-breaking ceremony for our proposed 250-bedded hospital in Mumbai in a couple of days, while the ground-breaking ceremony for the 500-bedded hospital in Kolkata would take place in the next two-three months," K Ravindranath, managing director of Global Hospitals, told the media here on Tuesday.

The land for the Mumbai hospital has been given by a charitable trust on lease for 99 years. The Kolkata hospital would come up on seven acres allotted by the West Bengal government in its new city Rajarhat.

Global will invest around Rs 100 crore in Mumbai. In the Kolkata project, the group will invest Rs 150 crore in phase I and another Rs 100 crore in phase II, he added.

The group also plans to expand its Hyderabad operations and foray into Delhi and Chennai with a total investment of around Rs 500 crore.

"We are currently in talks for acquisition of an existing hospital in Chennai. Work on the Delhi hospital would start next year," he said.

Global opened its Rs 150-crore hospital -- BGS Global Hospital -- in Bangalore on January 18. The hospital, located in the 50-acre BGS Education City and developed by Adichunchanagiri Mutt, will become fully operational by March 18, 2007.

"We plan to invest an additional Rs 100 crore in the Bangalore hospital in the second phase," he said.

The 4-lakh sft 500-bedded hospital in Bangalore has 125 beds exclusively for intensive care, and an entire floor dedicated to international patients.