Wockhardt Hospital Ltd, part of Rs 3,000-crore (Rs 30-bllion) Wockhardt Group, plans to expand its operations across the country.

The company will open seven new super speciality hospitals at major locations across the country and increase the bed capacity of some of its existing super speciality hospitals at an investment of Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) by 2010.

Currently, the company has 17 super speciality hospitals with over 2,000 in-patient beds across the country, four in Bangalore, three in Mumbai, two each in Nagpur, Hyderabad and Kolkata, and one each in Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar and Nashik.

After the expansion, total number of in-patient beds of the hospital will rise to 3,700.

Anil V Kamath, managing director, Wockhardt Hospitals, said, "We are planning for a pan-India presence in the next two years with commencement of operations in tier II cities. We will open seven new super speciality hospitals in Bhopal, Central Mumbai, Goa, Kolkata, Jabalpur, Varanasi and Bhuj by 2010."