The healthcare infrastructure of the town of Gurgaon, located north of the Indian capital Delhi, is likely to receive a major boost, with approx. US$ 600mn investment lined up by healthcare companies like Fortis and Apollo, Artemis of the Apollo Tyres Group, Healers Hospital, Rockland, the Action Group and Paras Group. The investment will see 18 new hospitals with as many as 5000 beds coming up 2010.

The investments are backed by a CII-McKinsey study that states that the Indian healthcare market is slated to rise from the current US$ 18.7bn to US$ 45bn by 2012. Moreover Gurgaon is likely to cater to the entire hinterland of Northern India, with patients streaming in from the surrounding states of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. The major demand driver is the lack of super specialty centres in fields like paediatrics, nephrology, neurology and trauma services.

The Apollo group is in talks with the real estate developer, DLF Universal for setting up a 100-bed hospital in the Gurgaon area.

Surgeon-turned-entrepreneur Naresh Trehan’s Rs. 1000-crore worth “Medicity” is also slated to be ready by August 2007. It has been envisioned as a 1500-bed institute, with18-20 super specialties, a nursing school, medical institute and an overall focus on holistic treatment that would also draw from Ayurveda, Unani, Reiki and other alternative medicines.

A similar medical complex, funded by Fortis, is likely to have a multiple super-specialty hospital, with 350-500 beds and 4-5 centres of excellence for oncology, paediatrics ,and neurology by 2008, all at a cost of over US$ 200 mn.