Tuesday, February 21 2006 15:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today (Feb 21 2006) invited private sector for the development of the health services in the state.

He said his government wanted private involvement and for that it has developed the public-private-partnership (PPP) model under which two big projects were coming up in the city.

The model would also be applied in village-level hospitals in the near future to develop the health sector with the help of private players.

The Chief Minister, speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of Tata Medical Centre at Rajarhat said "It is a difficult task" to have a perfect health administration by the Government alone.

He said 70 per cent of West Bengal's population depended on health services offered by the state and private participation is necessary to improve the health services.

Regarding the TMC, he said that West Bengal was eagerly waiting for such a hospital, adding that the hospital would benefit patients in the state as well as those from the north-east and Bangladesh.

Bhattacharjee promised to look into the request by Tatas for allotment of additional six-acres of land for expansion of its research and development facilities on cancer.

He said that Apollo Hospitals had also sought land in Rajarhat for setting up of an advanced research centre for heart related diseases.