• West Bengal Chief Minister Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee & Tata Group Chairman Mr. Ratan Tata unveil the foundation stone for the Tata Medical Centre, a cancer hospital

• An advanced cancer treatment facility located on a 10-acre plot to be completed by December 2007

• The Tata Trusts and Tata Group companies to invest for the project entirely.

Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata today unveiled the foundation stone of the Tata Medical Centre on a 10-acre plot at Rajarhat in Kolkata.

The Tata Medical Centre (TMC) is slated to be completed by December 2007 and will have 150 beds as well as an outpatient and ambulatory care facility for patients suffering from cancer. The outpatient block, to be built in two phases, will cover a total area of 42872 sq ft. The TMC will be set up along the lines of the 65-year old Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai and will be supported by the Tata Medial Centre Trust - a newly created Trust through funding from three Tata trusts - Sir Dorab Tata Trust, Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Jamsetji Tata Trust and Tata Group companies. The Centre will be a tertiary care center for cancer and will promote prevention, cure, rehabilitation and palliative care. It will also offer diagnostic and therapeutic services, provide education & conduct basic and clinical research. The infrastructure for the outpatient services will be conducive for maximizing Ambulatory care and minimize the need for hospitalization. The provision of Ambulatory services as an outpatient facility would also minimize the morbidity and costs associated with hospitalization and maximize the provision of services with revenue optimization.

Says Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group and Chairman of Tata Medical Centre Trust, "All of us in the Tata Group are the inheritors of a legacy of creating institutions that make a difference to the world we live in. The doctrine of social responsibility as professed by our Founder was, and will continue to be the central theme of the Tata way of business".

The Tata Medical Centre has been conceptualized and planned as the creation of a world-class institution. It is estimated that over 53% of the world's cancer cases are from the developing world. The WHO estimates that by 2020 the global incidence of cancer would have doubled to 20 million from the present 10 million. Over 70 per cent of this 20 million is expected to be from the developing world. In India it is estimated that there are about 3 million cases of cancer at any time. In 2004 nearly 1 million new cases were diagnosed and there were 650,000 deaths from cancer alone. The key to successful cancer control is prevention and early detection of the disease. Accordingly, the Tata Medical Centre will be mandated to provide service, education and research facilities for the North East and North Eastern regions of the country as well as neighboring countries.

The Tata Medical Centre will have a strategic alliance with the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai - to plan, commission and assist the operations of the new hospital, and ensure excellence and sustained progress of the Institution. According to statistics from the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai over 24 percent of the 230,000 patients, attended to by the hospital annually come from India's North East and Eastern regions.

The Architecture and Design of Tata Medical Centre has been undertaken by world-renowned architects Cannon Design, which provide architectural and engineering services for 21st century buildings. Design for healthcare has been a cornerstone for Cannon Design since the company's inception. The company has also been ranked amongst the top ten design firms in the area of healthcare for over a decade. Cannon Design's practice encompasses a wide range of interrelated services including planning, architecture, engineering, interior design and project delivery. The company has to its credit the development of new specialty institutions and clinics around the world.