Pune: Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu will upgradetheir existing military hospitals to state-of-the-art Command Hospitals. 

"It has been decided to upgrade the hospitals in (thesouthern states) with the latest modern medical facilities," Vice Admiral SurgeonVijay K. Singh, director general of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS),"told sources.

Singh said a Rs.3-billion budget has been sanctioned, out ofwhich Rs.1.5 billion has been spent on buying new equipment like CT Scan, MRI,colour dopler besides other orthopaedic instruments for the hospitals, whichwill be start functioning by March 31 next year.

"Another Rs.1.5 billion will be spent on modernizingthe infrastructure and construction of hospitals in Kochi, Chennai and Secunderabad," headded. The vice-admiral is also aconsultant to the International Cochlear Research Centre at Melbourne, Australia.

Singh said these hospitals were given less attention becausetroops were primarily deployed on the borders of northern states.

 But since the numberof ex-servicemen, their dependents and families were increasing, it was decidedto upgrade them.

"Besides, the upgrading will be useful during anyunforeseen natural disasters like earthquakes and the 2005 tsunami that ravagedthe southern states," said Singh, a pioneer in the Cochlear Implantprogramme in the armed forces for which he was awarded the Param Vishist SevaMedal.

"I am very happy with the upgradation of thesehospitals as most of my life has been spent serving in the southern states.Besides rendering medical services to the armed forces, ex-service personneland their dependents, even the civilians can avail high quality medicaltreatment in these hospitals," he said.

Currently there are seven CommandHospitals in Pune, Mumbai, Lucknow, Udhampur (Jammu and Kashmir),New Delhi, Chandigarh,Kolkota and Bangalore,besides several military hospitals, which approximately cater to two millionserving armed forces personnel, their 7.5 million dependents, 2.5 millionex-servicemen and their 12.5 million dependents and also about five millioncivilians.