Belle Vue Clinic will build two units in New Town, which, once operational, will more than double the hospital’s bed count, an official of the hospital said on Tuesday.

The hospital will also expand the capacity of its nursing college in New Town.

The two new units — one near Ecospace and another behind Hidco Bhavan — will together have 564 beds. The Loudon Street unit has 312 beds. Belle Vue’s bed count will rise to 876 once the two units are ready.

The MP Birla Group, which owns Belle Vue, will invest Rs 603 crore to build the two hospitals and expand the capacity of the nursing college, the official said. The two hospitals together will require an investment of Rs 500 crore.

“The unit that will come up near Ecospace will have 164 beds and will be opened by April 2022. It will be a general hospital and will function from an eight-storey building in front of the nursing college,” said Pradip Tondon, the chief executive officer of Belle Vue Clinic.

“The other one will be a 400-bed multi-speciality hospital. It will come up on a 2-acre plot behind Hidco Bhavan. It will be opened by March 2024.”

Tondon said the treatment cost at the general hospital would be “low”.

“People covered under the Central Government Health Scheme and West Bengal Health Scheme and those with Swasthya Sathi cards can come to this hospital,” he said.

“We are also expanding the capacity of our nursing college. There is an acute shortage of nurses in the state. If more nurses graduate every year, the shortage problem can be addressed,” he said.

The college, Priyamvada Birla Institute of Nursing, started in 2019.

Tondon said that 150 students — 100 general nursing and midwifery (GNM) students and 50 BSc nursing students — were admitted last year. “This year we have already admitted 200 students, taking 50 more BSc nursing students than last year. Next year, we will admit 50 post-basic nursing students and 10 MSc nursing students,” he said.

Post-basic is a three-year course for nurses with a GNM degree.

The number of seats in each of the courses will keep increasing over the next few years. “Once the expansion is complete, we will admit 700 nursing students each year,” said Tondon.

The first batch of 100 GNM students will graduate in 2022.

The Loudon Street unit will add 60 beds by March 2021. “The bed count will go up from 312 to 372. We will add 15 dialysis beds there,” Tondon said.