Plan to get into training and clinical research, says Centre for Sight's Mahipal Sachdev

New Delhi Centre for Sight, a chain of specialised eyecare centres, is planning to rev up its business by building seven new centres across India, including in Delhi-NCR, Gujarat, Haryana and UP over 2017 and 2018. It also plans to diversify its revenue streams by serving demand in medical tourism, and is looking to get into training and clinical research. Part of the funds for the effort would be met through the capital markets, where the company plans to list sometime this year, having filed its draft red herring prospectus with markets regulator SEBI in November 2015. Sachdev doesn't think the current market volatility will impact the company's IPO prospects, because "healthcare is a defensive sector". The bulwark of this plan is the company's upcoming super-speciality centre in Dwarka, Delhi, which will be spread across 90,000 sq. ft across floors, which is seven to eight times larger than its current biggest centre in Safdarjung Enclave. "Apart from offering all critical services that we offer, we would also wish to start teaching and training. We may offer post-doctoral programmes and fellowships etc., subject to receipt of necessary certification and accreditation," says Mahipal Singh Sachdev, Chairman and Medical Director of Centre for Sight.  The training, of course, would help in its expansion plan as well. "Today when we go into tier-III cities, retention of doctors becomes a slight issue," says Sachdev. "So if you have people who you have trained, and you know what their quality is, as part of their training, they would be sent to tier-III cities." According to Sachdev, the Dwarka centre would also have differential pricing for people at the bottom of the pyramid, though the surgical facilities would be the same as for people who can afford to pay more.  Centre for Sight was started by Sachdev in 1996, after having worked at AIIMS for 20 years. He was later joined by three of his AIIMS colleagues.

Over the years, the company has evolved from a single-centre eye hospital to a chain of 51 centres in 30 cities. "We have a reasonable presence in NCR, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP. In Gujarat we have a lot of centres, then we are significantly in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. We are also looking at more in MP - we currently have two in Indore," says Sachdev.