Sankara Nethralaya to open branch in New Town within year end

Sankara Nethralaya will open its branch in New Town within this calendar year.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had laid the foundation stone of the proposed premiere eye care centre three years ago.

Lieutenant Colonel Raghvan on Friday met chairman of West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO) and requested him to expedite issuing of completion certificate to the proposed building. Sen assured him to give the CC by next week. 

This will be Nethralaya’s second branch in the city.

The first is Aditya Birla Sankara Nethralaya in Mukundapur. Banerjee wants New Town to come up as a major medical hub in the state. Already a couple of private hospitals including a premier cancer treatment centre have come up in the area.

The state Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim opened an e-health centre at Swapno Bhor last week. Once functional, patients with eye problems would not have to travel all the way to South India.

Nearly 45 of the patients who visit Nethralaya on College Road in Chennai are from Bengal.

On getting the CC, Nethralaya will move to get clearance under Clinical Establishment Act. Then equipment will be procured and the centre will start functioning from this calendar year.

Established by Dr SS Badrinath, Sankara Nethralaya is a premier eye care centre in the country. It has several branches in Tamil Nadu. Difficult eye surgeries are conducted at an affordable price at the centres.

The unit in New Town will come up opposite the Unitech IT Building. A high-level meeting was held on Friday between Sen and senior officials of New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) over the proposed food court that will come up near Nethralaya.

All the roadside eateries will go there. Modalities for allotting food stalls and food kiosks to the existing vendors are being chalked out. After this, massive beautification work will be carried out in the area.