R.K. Krishna Kumar

Calcutta, Jan. 18: The construction of the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital will start in two weeks, it was learnt after a meeting between Tata Sons director R.K. Krishna Kumar and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today.

“We were told about the status of the hospital. Its design has been approved after the company got the additional six acres in Rajarhat. Construction will start within the next two weeks,” said Sabyasachi Sen, principal secretary in Bengal’s commerce and industry department.

The Tatas now have 16 acres to build the 150-bed super-speciality hospital at a cost of Rs 120 crore. Of this, Rs 75 crore will be invested in the first phase. In the later stages, an outpatients department, a research centre and a nursing school will come up.

Asked if the Singur issue came up, Sen said that since Krishna Kumar is not directly involved with the Tata Motors project, the issue was not on the meeting’s agenda.

Earlier in the day, Krishna Kumar, along with Tata Memorial Centre director K.A. Dinshaw, made presentations to the chief minister on the group’s initiatives in the hotel and tea industries.

AmCham meet

The chief minister has invited US aerospace giant Boeing to invest in a maintenance centre in Bengal and urged Dow Chemicals to set up a unit similar to that of Haldia Petrochemicals.

The requests were made during a meeting Bhattacharjee held with the national chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), Sanjay Nayar.

Representatives of the chamber expressed concern over frequent bandhs.