APOLLO Hospitals’ muchdelayed Mumbai projects are back on track. As the company is closing the joint venture formed for the Mumbai expansion, two of the proposed projects will now be funded by the flagship company Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (AHEL). For the third one it is restructuring the JV with Birla Wellness and Healthcare.

Apollo Hospitals had formed a joint venture Western Hospitals Corporation with One Equity Partners, the private equity affiliate of JP Morgan Chase and Company, in 2007 for identifying and developing multi-specialty hospitals in and around Mumbai. Following the financial downturn, One Equity Partners has not been much keen on taking up the projects.

Now Apollo is in the process of closing the joint venture and taking up the projects on its own. AHEL will fund two tertiary care projects – a 600-bed hospital in Navi Mumbai and 350-bed hospital in South Mumbai, according to company officials.

Apollo has acquired three acres of land in Navi Mumbai and in south Mumbai the hospital will be coming up in a leased property. The layout planning on the projects has started.

The Navi Mumbai project will be developed in two phases.

Apart from these two projects, the third Mumbai project at Thane is coming up in a two-and-half acre land owned by Birla Wellness and Healthcare. Western Hospitals Corporation had formed a JV with Birla Wellness and Healthcare — Ashok Birla Apollo Hospital — for the 250-bed hospital at Thane.

Post liquidation of West

ern Hospitals Corporation, Apollo and Birla Wellness are in the process of restructuring the JV. The companies will relook at the funding of the earlier assessed Rs 240-crore project.

Earlier, the total project cost for Mumbai hospitals was estimated to be around Rs 600 crore. Under the new arrangement, Apollo will also revise the invest

ments. As far as Apollo is concerned, the funds for the Mumbai projects will be part of the Rs 900 crore the company is raising for its expansion plans and general corporate purposes through QIP and issue of warrants.