Kolkata To Get World-Class Cancer Hospital Soon

Tatas on Tuesday laid the foundation stone to construct a world-class cancer hospital and research center, Tata Medical Centre (TMC), which is to come up at Rajarhat, at the cost of Rs. 1.2 billion.

The cancer hospital known as the Tata Medical Centre (TMC) would come up on a 10-acre plot, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata said, after laying the foundation stone for the project scheduled to be completed by December 2007.

The medical centre would be modelled after the 65-year-old Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai and supported by the Tata Medical Centre Trust, a newly created trust through funding from Sir Dorab Tata Trust, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Jamshedji Tata Trust and Tata group companies.

The centre would have 150 beds as well as outpatient and ambulatory facility for patients suffering from cancer.

Speaking on the occasion, Ratan Tata said that the centre would benefit the ill-served eastern part of the country.

He said a world-class research facility would be built within TMC to carry out research activities in the field of cancer.

"We hope to make it a centre of excellence for early detection and treatment of cancer," he said.

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Bhattacharya said the Tata group had asked for six acres of adjacent land for future expansion of the project.

The cancer hospital would cater to patients in West Bengal, northeastern states, Nepal and Bangladesh, Bhattacharya said.

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He said Apollo Hospitals chairman Prathap C. Reddy had also asked for land for an advanced research centre on heart diseases.

--Edited IANS