At present, the institute runs about 16 hospitals in the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. "We are looking at metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Jaipur for building hospitals. However, that is a long term plan. The investment in the hospitals will be city-specific, and the amount is yet to be decided," said Sandeep K M, senior manager, Manipal Health Systems.

Manipal Heart Institute is also planning to set-up a facilitation desk in Kolkata, to assist patients seeking surgery at Manipal's Bangalore unit.

"Most of the patients from Kolkata come for heart surgery to Bangalore, with most of them being infants. Every two day, one patient from Kolkata come to our hospital for treatment," said Sandeep KM of Manipal Hospital.

According to Prasad Krishnan, consultant and head of department, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, Manipal Hospital, one in every 100 children born in India have heart problems.

Recently, five babies from Kolkata with heart problems were operated at Manipal Hospital, Bangalore.

"More than 1,50,000 children in India are born with congenital heart problems every year, but only 5,000 manage to get the treatment, mostly with sponsorship or government aid," said Krishnan.