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Ratan Tata to lay foundations for a 300 bed cancer hospital

RANCHI: Tata Trusts will build a a 300-bed cancer hospital cum research center in Ranchi.

Ratan Tata, the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons and the chairman of Tata Trusts, will lay the foundations for a the hospital cum research center on Saturday.

The hospital will come up on 23 acres of land donated by the state department of health, medical education and family welfare department to the Tata Trusts in Kanke on the outskirts of the state capital earlier this year.

Jharkhand health secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said the first phase of the hospital is expected to become operational with 150 beds by 2022. “Once operational, it will cater to thousands of cancer patients of Jharkhand who visit different states for treatment every year,” Kulkarni added.

The groundbreaking comes less than a week before Jharkhand is due to observe the 18th statehood day.

State government had said seeds of the hospital were sown during the inaugural session of the Momentum Jharkhand Global Investment Summit held in February 2017 when Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das approached Tata and floated the idea of building a cancer care center, which the latter agreed to.

With Jharkhand lacking a robust cancer treatment infrastructure in its state run tertiary and secondary healthcare centers, the health department has approached the Tata Trusts to handhold in setting up screening facilities in government healthcare centers.

Published on Times of India