The Bangalore-headquartered hospital chain Narayana Health is planning to open its first super-speciality hospital in Guwahati, in joint venture with the Assam Government, by December. Plans are also afoot to add three more hospitals in West Bengal.

“A 300-bed super speciality hospital will be operational at Guwahati in the next two months to cater to better healthcare for the North-Eastern region,” A. Raghuvanshi, Vice-Chairman, MD and Group CEO, Narayana Health, told Business Line on the sidelines of a CII seminar on healthcare.

The hospital would be operated by Narayana Health in a property owned by the Assam Government. Narayana Health has signed a long-term contract with the State to operate the hospital.

According to Raghuvanshi, such a “resource-light” model works well as the hospital operator requires to invest only in the equipment.

The group recently opened a 200-bed super speciality hospital at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh on a similar model, with a private partner.

Bengal plans

In West Bengal, the group is exploring the idea of opening two new hospitals in Malda and Midnapore. Work on a multi-speciality hospital at Siliguri is expected to begin shortly.

Narayana Health currently has four hospitals in West Bengal. This includes the 510-bed super speciality hospital (Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences) and a 90-bed eye care centre, in Kolkata.

Besides, the group operates a 300-bed super-speciality unit at IQ City, Durgapur, and it has entered into a joint venture with Westbank Hospital for operating a 400-bed cardiac unit at Howrah.

>ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in