Kolkata, Jan 8 : Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday laid the foundation here for a hospital named after late Bengali filmmaker Tapan Sinha. The hospital will provide free treatment to railway employees and have beds reserved for common people and Bengali film technicians.

Banerjee proposed that the Tapan Sinha Memorial Metro Hospital be set up in the public-private partnership model by forging tie-ups with the Vellore Christian Medical College and the AIIMS at New Delhi.

The Metro railway will invest Rs. 20.78 crore for the hospital, which will be spread over one acre and come into being in two years at Chanditala in south Kolkata.

While railway employees will be treated free of cost, 50 percent of the beds will be reserved for the masses. Some beds will be reserved for Bengali film technicians.

Among those present were Bengali film directors Rituparno Ghosh, Haranath Chakraborty and actors-cum-parliamentarians Tapas Pal and Shatabdi Roy. Leading actors Indrani Haldar, Rachana Banerjee, Debashree Roy and singer-cum-parliamentarian Kabir Suman were also present.

Veteran singer Anup Ghoshal sang popular numbers from Tapan Sinha's films.(IANS)