Ahmedabad: In 2007, Shalby Hospital came up in Prahladnagar as a major privately run centre on SG Highway. At the time, the only important hospital on the vital stretch connecting Sarkhej and the state capital Gandhinagar was the Sola Civil Hospital with 200 beds.In a matter of two decades, the 14km length from Prahladnagar to Vaishnodevi Circle has 12 major and five to six minor hospitals, cumulatively with about 3,400 beds. The number translates to roughly 240 beds per km, which is much higher than the city and state averages of 50 beds per km.“SG Highway is a unique healthcare ecosystem now. When we compare it to other major healthcare clusters in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, we get a single major hospital dominating a specific area,” said Dr Bharat Gadhavi, the regional director of HCG Hospitals.He said, “It is AIIMS in Delhi or RGGGH in Chennai with over 2,000 beds each. India has few single hospitals with such massive infrastructure, including the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad.”Dr Gadhavi, who is also the president of the Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association, said, “The growth of SG Highway as a hub is organic and driven by private players.”He added, “It is easily one of the biggest such clusters in India where almost all major private players are present, and more like Adani Group are coming.”Members of the medical fraternity said multiple factors made SG Highway such a lucrative option for the healthcare industry. They said that until the 1990s and early 2000s, the city’s healthcare system was primarily run by private nursing homes, with heavy dependence on govt infrastructure.In the early 2000s, the city saw the entry of the first ‘corporate’ hospital, which introduced the concept of multiple services and specialties under one roof.While insurance schemes by both govt and private players boosted the sector with the establishment of new hospitals and expansion of existing ones, the major push came after the Covid pandemic in 2020.Citizens had become health-conscious, and lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases were in sharp focus.“We should see the phenomenon as a response to the growing market,” said Dr Adit Desai, the managing director of KD Hospital.Dr Desai said, “While we already had a land parcel near Vaishnodevi Circle and it was a natural choice to build a hospital here, for a majority of the players, it is connectivity to Saurashtra and north Gujarat that is key.”Before the real estate boom, Dr Desai said the area also offered ample space for major projects at reasonable rates, and by then, the city areas were becoming saturated.Sola Civil Hospital’s current expansion will add about 500 new beds by the end of the year. Moreover, Adani Group is planning a major foray into healthcare on a Medicity model with Mayo Clinic, reports suggest.Dr Nishita Shukla, Group COO of Shalby Hospitals, said that Shalby Hospital started with 200 beds and today has multiple campuses across the city.“It is a matter of demand and supply, and also the sign of changing times,” Dr Shukla said. “Ahmedabad has changed a lot. SG Highway, which was on the fringe of the city, is nearly in the middle of the city now, with rapid development beyond the highway and even SP Ring Road.”She added, “Thus, the hospitals on SG Highway are catering to these demographics. Hospitals like ours also benefited from the medical tourism from India, which slowly cemented the status of SG Highway as a health hub.”
