Visakhapatnam: In what could be called the first step towards making the city a medical tourism hub, the state Ayush department will open a wellness tourism facility here on June 21.Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) has leased out 11 villas in its row housing project at Rushikonda for the same. The facility, which will be launched at the hands of chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, will offer several holistic and alternative healthcare treatments such as panchakarma, massage, naturopathy, special therapies and other demand-based treatments.It will also offer long-stay rejuvenation services to tourists from across the country. The initiative was taken up under the Andhra Pradesh Medical Rehabilitation Tourism project. With holistic and alternative healthcare systems gradually gaining popularity due to the growing incidence of lifestyle-related diseases, officials expect the facility to attract a good number of tourists, patients and visitors.P A Shobha, commissioner, Ayush department, said the government will partner with wellness tourism service providers for medical services, while the former will support the infrastructure component. “The facility is aimed at promoting medical tourism in the state. Based on its success, we will expand its horizons. The facility is being set up in the Vuda row housing villas,” Shobha told TOI.The row housing project, nestled between two IT hills at Rushikonda, was developed on an area of 6.78 acres close to the Vizag-Bheemili beach road as a gated community in European model with duplex-type houses. Even though Vuda developed the sea-facing row housing project many years ago, there were no takers for some of the housing units. Earlier in 2017, Vuda leased out some villas to the Andhra Pradesh Human Resource Development Institute (APHRDI) to set up its regional centre. With the remaining houses now allocated to the Ayush department, there are no vacant villas at this project.Vuda vice-chairman P Basanth Kumar said the urban body has not invested anything into the wellness tourism facility. “The Ayush department itself has taken up the repair works for the facility. The HRDI regional centre in the row housing project has already concluded 25 courses,” he informed, and added that they are looking for a suitable piece of land to develop a permanent infrastructure for the HRDI centre, either in Rushikonda area or in the neighbourhood.

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