Tata Group to invest Rs 92 crore in its Kolkata cancer hospital

EHM News Bureau - Kolkata

Cancer patients in the city will not have to travel all the way to Mumbai or other parts of the country to seek treatment, as Tata Group is setting up a 150-bed super-specialty cancer hospital modeled on the lines of the renowned Tata Memorial Cancer Research Institute of Mumbai.

“All the details regarding the project have been sorted out. The cancer hospital will come up over 10 acres of land at Rajarhat. The hospital will be in place in one-and-a-half years”, Ratan Tata, Tata group chairman informed.

The Tatas had announced the project a year ago, but negotiations had dragged on over the pricing of the land and the location. “The details have been finalised now,” Tata informed. “The Tatas will invest Rs 92 crore. This will include Rs 10 crore for the land provided by the government at Rs 1 crore per acre,” said Krishna Kumar, co-chairman of Tata Tea.

“We have sought another 15 acres for additional infrastructure for the second phase,” Kumar said. “The first phase will be complete in 18 months and we have already spent Rs 10 crore on the project,” Kumar said.

At any time, 2.5 million people in the country suffer from different forms of cancer. Thousands of cancer patients from Bengal head to Mumbai and to hospitals in the South for treatment in the absence of advanced cancer care facilities in the State. The city currently has only three dedicated cancer hospitals.