From correspondents in India, 07:31 PM IST

The Shankaracharya Trust will set up a 450-bed multi-specialty hospital at Silchar, southern Assam's main commercial city, to provide world-class healthcare services to the people in the northeast, officials said Tuesday.

A tea garden owner has donated 30-acre of land for the Rs.1 billion hospital, which would be commissioned by the Kolkata-based Srikanchishankar Purbottar Pradesh Seva Trust, an associate body of the Tamil Nadu-based Jaggadguru Shankaracharya Trust.

'With most modern operation theatres, the proposed hospital would provide super-specialty treatment of international standards to the people of the northeastern states,' said K. Panchepakesan, a senior official of the trust.

State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and the petroleum and natural gas ministry Monday donated Rs.5 million each for the proposed hospital, which would be operational by 2011.

Panchepakesan said: 'Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Heavy Industries Minister Santosh Mohan Dev have asked various public sector undertakings to donate funds for the ambitious hospital.'

A helicopter would also be arranged for carrying serious patients to and from the hospital, which would provide free treatment to the poor and tea garden workers.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)