Dr Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals has slated an expansion plan where it will invest Rs. 50 crore in Karnataka alone. The investment in the first phase will be Rs. 30 crore and in the second phase it is Rs. 20 crore. The Group has taken a decision to open 25 hospitals across Karnataka with ten hospitals in Bangalore.

The five hospitals in Bangalore are at the Bannerghatta road, Koramanagala, Basaveshwarnagar, Basavangudi and Padmanabhanaga. The facilities were open by the Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.

“The hospital was mandated because the population presents diverse ophthalmic challenges. We would address this surmounting problem of blindness among others through our expertise of over 5 decades and improve the eye care services for the patients”, stated Prof. Amar Agarwal, chairman cum managing director of Dr Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospital.

In Bangalore, the main tertiary hospital will be located in Bannerghatta Road. This facility will work as a hub to treat Refraction Error Correction, Cataract Surgery, Advanced Lasik, Retinal Disorder, Paediatric Ophthalmology, Squint, Oculoplasty, emergency eye care, Computer vision syndrome, Ocular Oncology with the latest diagnostic & treatment modalities. The total investment for this facility is Rs.15 crore, he added.

According to Rajagopalan, director, Dr Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals, the first phase of launch covers nine hospitals in Bangalore which will be operational by March 2011. The four centres of the total nine hospitals would be at Coles Park, Yelahanka New town, RT Nagar and Marathahalli.

In the second phase another 16 hospitals will operational in Shimoga, Kolar, Tumkur, Hubli, Mysore, Gulbarga, Bellary, Davangere, Hassan, Mangalore and rest of Karnataka. The network of eye hospitals will over 200 eye specialists and 900 paramedics, he added.

The key objective of the Group’s focus into Tier I and II cities is the increased incidence of life style diseases resulting in related complications in eye which demands super specialty ophthalmology services. The centres are also equipped to handle the Glued IOL interventions  on patients without posterior capsule and wearing thick glasses after cataract surgery, having life totally depended on prescribed thick glasses.

Further in expansion plan, the group plans to extend its services in Andhra Pradesh, other parts in Tamil Nadu, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat etc. With an existing international centre in Mauritius, plans are there to foray in other parts of the world too.