New York, July 18 (IANS) Popular yoga guru Swami Ramdev has announced the setting up of a $4.5 million centre in Houston. It will be the first major overseas branch of his Haridwar-based Patanjali Yogpeeth and will mainly serve the US and Canada. The announcement about building the centre was made by the swami himself Wednesday at the yoga camp he is holding in Houston for over 2,000 yoga enthusiasts.

The centre will be built on a 60-acre plot in Rosenberg suburb of Houston in Texas and will offer the yoga and ayurveda teachings and treatments for which Patanjali Yogpeeth is known.

Vijay Pallod, one of the organisers of Ramdev’s camp in Houston, told IANS on phone: “The $4.5 million for the centre has been raised by local donors as well as those from across US. Construction will start soon and will be finished within a year.”

About 300 dignitaries and Ramdev’s associates and followers are expected to attend the groundbreaking ceremnony Saturday, he added.

Ramdev was also scheduled to give a presentation at the University of Texas’s M D Anderson Cancer Centre. He is also conducting a free session for children and youth on July 19, expected to be attended by about 1,000.

Ramdev, who attained unprecedented popularity for a yoga guru became of his televised sessions starting half a decade ago, conducted camps for the first time in the US and Canada last year.

This time around, he has already held a camp in Los Angeles early this month. After Houston, he will conduct 5-day camps in Washington DC from July 23 and in Canada from July 30.