The government has allotted land to Himadri Memorial Cancer Welfare Trust and construction will start in December. The Rs 25-crore hospital will have facilities for bone marrow transplant and will be the only centre in eastern India with a dedicated wing for such transplants.

At present, patients from east India have to either go to Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai or to Christian Medical College in Vellore for bone marrow transplants.

"Apart from state-of-the-art facilities like the one for advanced radiation, the new hospital will have a bone marrow transplant facility. A transplant will cost between Rs 4 and Rs 5 lakh while it costs Rs 9 lakh at Tata Memorial Hospital or Christian Medical College," said Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Cancer Institute medical director Asish Mukhopadhyay. The institute will merge with the new facility.

The institute will reserve 20% beds for poor patients, who will be treated for free. Apart from medical treatment, research on the disease and clinical trials for various drugs and academic courses on oncology will also be conducted here.

A businessman from Myanmar has shown interest in meeting 65% of the cost. The hospital is expected to be operational by the end of 2008.