By T G Biju

New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS) Gulf-based healthcare tycoon Azad Moopen is investing over Rs.10 billion ($200 million) for setting up hospitals and eye-care centres across India, including his home state of Kerala.

"There is a huge opportunity in India. India will become one of the major powers in 25 years," said Moopen, who is the chairman of the Dubai-based Dr. Moopen group and the Kozhikode-based Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences.

"We have already started the Medicity project in 40 acres of land in Kochi. It is a Rs.500 crore ($100 million) project. It will be completed in three years," Moopen, here for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, told IANS in an interview.

He said investing in India was be the best possible thing he could do for his country and has plans for the entire spectrum of medical treatment, except primary healthcare.

"We are in primary care in the Gulf," said Moopen, who secured a degree in general medicine from Government Medical College in Kozhikode and pursued a one-year course in chest medicine from Delhi University in 1982.

He then taught in Kozhikode for five years before leaving for the Gulf in 1987. Today, his DM group operates in four Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations and planning to expand its operations in Saudi Arabia, apart from India.

From his first clinic in Dubai that started in 1987 with only two doctors his group now comprises 70 clinics and pharmacies in the region, including the 60-bed Medcare Hospital and the 20-bed Al Rafa Hospital for Maternity and Surgery, both in Dubai.

"Two eye care centres will also be set up in Noida and Faridabad in two months. We are also investing in Kolhapur, Pune and Bangalore," said Moopen, while speaking about his plans in India.

"It won't be difficult for us to emerge among the top three healthcare entities in India in the coming years," he said.

The son of noted freedom fighter Ahamed Unni Moopen, he said healthcare and human serving go hand in hand.

"We give five percent of our profit to charity. Whenever there is an element of healthcare, it cannot be 100 percent commercial," he said, adding the government should give medical insurance coverage to people below the poverty line.

"It is the duty of the government to do so. We feel very sad that many people do not have access to private healthcare facilities in India."