Upfront

Narayana Hrudayalaya in a Major Expansion Spree

Bangalore based cardiac care hospital, Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH) will be raising Rs 500 crore for building a 5,000 bedded 'Health City' — each in Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Jaipur, Raipur, Jamshedpur, Bhopal and Delhi including one more in Bangalore. NH currently runs three hospitals in Kolkata and Bangalore with a total bed-capacity of 2,500. The first Health City is being built at Bangalore with specialties in orthopedics, cardiac, cancer, eye-care, neurology, and women and child care. The Group has commenced construction of a 1,000-bedded cardiac hospital in Jaipur and has been allotted 37 acres in Ahmedabad by the Gujarat government including 25 acres by a private builder in Delhi. It is also upgrading its Kolkata facility spread across new 25-acre site where it will add 5,000 beds. The Tatas in Jamshedpur has offered NH an existing hospital to build a 5,000-bed Health City. Industry insiders indicate that many real-estate PE funds have generated interest in this concept. "This unlocking will obviously help building the hospitals," the source added. This step by NH comes just a few months after the firm raised Rs 400 crore through PE route from JP Morgan and AIG for building a nationwide chain of hospitals. Each of these health cities will have a 1,000-bedded heart hospital and another 3,000-4,000 beds for other specialties like cancer, neurology and paediatric. The plan is to start with 5,000-bed hospitals, reaching 20,000 beds in a period of five-years.

EH News Bureau