BENGALURU: The state government aims to attract Rs 40,000 crore investment in the Knowledge, Healthcare, Innovation and Research (KHIR) City near Bengaluru and generate 80,000 jobs. These investments are expected to contribute Rs 1 lakh crore to the state GDP. While addressing the ideation session for the KHIR City on Friday, Minister for Large and Medium Enterprises MB Patil said efforts are being taken to build a city beyond conventional boundaries. The investment region will be spread over 2,000 acres, within 60 km of Bengaluru, and will be developed in a phased manner.
The proposed KHIR City is being developed to attract investments from global and national hospitals, research institutions, universities, private companies, etc, which will help strengthen Bengaluru’s position as a hub of medical tourism, providing employment to local people, and also help in attracting skill-sets from across the globe.
Patil added that Bengaluru has the largest skilled talent pool in India and is best suited for developing the KHIR City. The state also has a strong innovation ecosystem and R&D units are here too. It is also ideal as the state is home to 60 per cent of India’s biotech companies and over 350 medical devices and supplies manufacturers across categories.
IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge added that KHIR City will be the first such centre of knowledge, which will have innovators from healthcare, knowledge and global research centres coming together in one place. The state is also planning to introduce a separate policy promoting medical tourism, he added.
Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan suggested, “The implementation speed is important for the development of KHIR City. We need to first develop a metro station before the KHIR City takes shape. Also, we want to generate IPs owned by India or Karnataka so that jobs and wealth are created here.”