Sir Edward Dunlop Hospitals Ltd (SEDH), an Australia-based global consortium of health-related companies, is planning an institute in India to train 2,000 nurses per year.

The National Institute for Advanced Nursing, which is at an advanced stage of study, is likely to fructify within six months, according to SEDH India managing director Shakat Singh.

The Foreign Investment Proposal Board has cleared the project.

"India currently has about 1,500 nursing colleges, but most of them do not have a capacity of training more than 50-100 nurses every year," he said.

"We want to be able to churn out 2,000 nurses per year who can meet the global demand," Singh told IANS. The project is planned on a 598-acre site in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi.

Several other medical, alternative healthcare, wellness and recreational facilities are also planned at the site.

Singh said SEDH, which is headquartered in Victoria, Australia, would eventually be looking at annually training 5,000 nurses, taking advantage of the human resources available in India and the rest of South Asia.

"We want this initiative to be on the right scale and in the right environment," he said.

"SEDH wants to offer affordable health training with international certification to aspiring nurses from across the region so that they do not have to go through the expensive process of applying for the certification themselves."

The international consortium will also take the help of HSCC India Ltd (formerly Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation of India), the public sector hospital consultancy arm of the health ministry.