The National Urban Health Mission will be launched in Bangalore in January to provide healthcare facilities to the urban poor, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Friday.

 

 "The National Rural Health Mission will be extended to the urban poor in Bangalore next month under the Urban Health Mission, scheduled to be launched in January," Azad told reporters here after discussing the centrally-sponsored scheme with state Health Minister U.T. Khader and state health officials here.

 

 Asserting that the central government had spent Rs.110,000 crore so far under the National Rural Health Mission to improve healthcare infrastructure in rural areas across the country, Azad said 24,000 new healthcare facilities were set up and 25,000 existing facilities were upgraded.

 

 "The rural health mission has helped reduce infant mortality rate to 42 deaths from 80 deaths per 1000 births in 2012. Maternal mortality rate too declined to 178 from 254 per one-lakh deliveries last year," he said.