A medical education city to come up near Malappuram
Published January 7, 2011 | 
Kerala has proved its mettle as a happening medical tourist destination that attracts many health watchers from all over the world to experience the bliss of perfect health. Kerala has one of the biggest pools of qualified health professionals to cater to the burgeoning needs of the tourists. Kerala Tourism Department and many other private tour operators provide attractive tour packages that combine medical treatment with an unbeatable vacation in Kerala. The state attracts about 23 per cent of the foreign tourists every year and over 15,000 medical tourists reach Kerala annually, mostly from West Asia, the Maldives, South Africa, UK and the European Union
In order to further promote medical tourism in the State, the Kerala Government has come up with a novel idea of setting up a medical-education city near Malappuram. The proposed unit will come up on 182 acres of land and will be implemented by Inkel-KSIDC Projects Ltd (INKED), a joint venture of Infrastructures Kerala Ltd (Inkel) and the Kerala State Industries Development Corporation (KSIDC), in association with private developers.
Malappuram makes an ideal destination for the medical city as it takes credit to one of the highest foreign remittances in the State and has the highest rate of morbidity and hospitalisation rate in the State. The proposed medical education city will be offering facilities for medical education, technical education and healthcare services, apart from providing residential and commercial infrastructure. Reputed Ayurvedic centres including the well acclaimed Kottakal Aryavydya Sala will be catering to the clientèle comprising of both national and international clients.
The proposed unit will have a super-speciality hospital, diagnostic centre and a wellness centre offering ayurvedic treatment systems. Under the ambitious programme of Vision-2025 of Kerala Govt, special tourism zones also will be set up in the next few years.
Dubai based Medcity in Kochi
Published April 1, 2008 | Apr 1: To add more attraction to the medical tourism sector in Kerala the Dubai based Dr. Moopen Group has announced its plan to begin a MedCity, which will be a complex of hospitals and other related services in over 30 acres in Kochi. This initiative is in the backdrop of the rapid increase in the number of medical tourists to the southern states of India.
“This is a 15bn project expected to complete within six months time. The anchor hospital of Medcity will be well equipped with 500 beds and will be surrounded by 10 small hospitals with a capacity of 100 to 200 beds. The availability of medical facilities with international quality with enhanced hi-tech treatment facilities will boost the health care sector in Kerala,” said the chairman of the group Dr Azad Moopen.
After the completion of the project patients from the US, the Middle East Europe and rest of the world will start flowing into Kerala as they can get quality treatment at an affordable cost.
The Dr Moopan’s Group has registered a turnover of Rs5bn last year and has a network of nearly 50 establishments in the Gulf region including two hospitals, clinics and pharmacies