New Delhi: Delhi-based Center for Sight (CFS) has become one of Asia's largest eye-care chains with the aquisition of the New Vision Laser Center (NVLC), raising the number of its facilities to 35.

With the addition of NVLC and partnership with Rajasthan's leading eye surgeon, Ghulam Ali Kamdar, the CFS has become one of the largest network of Lasik and Laser based vision correction centers across Asia, Africa and Australia, its chairman, Mahipal Singh Sachdev, said.

Before the acquisition, CFS had 22 centers across the National Capital Region, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. NVLC has 13 centers in Gujrat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Sachdev said the group aimed to double its centers across the country by 2015.

"We expect that the expansion will come at a cost of 150 crore," he added.

Sachdev said that while the healthcare had developed rapidly in the country, the eye-care sector had lagged behind and CFS aimed at filling that gap by expanding into tier 2 and 3 cities.

The expansion is proposed through new ventures, mergers and setting up specialty departments in the leading hospitals in the no-metro cities, he said.

Sachdev also said that the work was on for a 55,000 square feet super-specialty eye hospital in the capital's Dwarka area and that it will be finished within 18 to 20 months.

Speaking on the occasion, NVLC medical director Rupal Shah said the tie-up would bring NVLC's latest technologies to all the group's centers across the country.

According to Shah, NVLC specialised in LASIK and other laser correction therapies and had pioneered latest surgery techniques which allow for safer surgery and even better recovery times.

Shah added that LASIK or Laser-Assisted in SItu Keratomileusis is the leading surgical procedure to correct nearsightedness across the world.

CFS has also tied up with Kamdar's Jodhpur based Aastha Hospital and Research Center to become the largest eye-care provider in Rajasthan.

Kamdar said that with this partnership, the group would be able to provide even better service throughout Rajasthan and the country.