KARACHI, Dec 11: The French Consul-General in Karachi performed the ground- breaking of the 50-bed cancer hospital, Al-Mehrab Tibbi Imdad (AMTI), in Korangi on Tuesday.

The Rs15-million-project is expected to be completed in 18 months. The French consul-general raised Rs7 million for the project by organizing charity opera concerts at which Ms Caroline Dumas, world-renowned Diva of the Opera de Paris and Ms Marie Develreau, the new rising star on the international opera scene, enthralled connoisseurs of this sublime art.

Last year a French chef from Bordeaux, Philippe Techoire, specially flew into Karachi to give a dazzling display of his culinary skills at a gastronomic soiree organized in the gardens of the French consulate. Some philanthropists of Karachi have pledged to donate Rs4 million.

The funds raised through these charity events enabled the AMTI to buy a 1,000 square yards plot of land. Approximately one-third of the construction cost will be borne by the Zulekhabai Rangoonwala Trust.

The AMTI is a society formed for the purpose of providing medical aid and sanctuary to destitute and needy patients suffering from terminal illness, particularly cancer.

The AMTI had established its first project in 1997, a 14-bed hospital, in KDA Scheme No 1.

Thanks to the generosity of locally-based multinationals, leading banks, well-known Pakistani companies and philanthropists, the new hospital will improve considerably the medical assistance already being provided by the AMTI.