Details of a £75 million development (€113.6 million) at one of Northern Ireland's largest hospitals are due to be announced next week.

The development, at Altnagelvin Hospital on the outskirts of Derry, will create more than 1,000 jobs in the construction industry for the duration of the five-year building programme.

Two separate planning applications for the development have been lodged with the Department of the Environment's Planning Office in Derry.

The building programme will result in the area of the hospital being almost doubled from its present size of 23,000 sq m to 43,000 sq m with bed space rising from 472 beds to 485 beds.

It includes the building of an eight-storey extension and the construction of a new entrance block and a new clinical block together with the provision of lift shafts.

The plans envisage additional single bedrooms with en-suite shower rooms throughout the hospital. During the construction operation, an additional 15,000 cubic metres of water will be required on-site each year.

The hospital's car park capacity will be increased from 1,083 to 1,453 spaces. There will be several new road alignments within the hospital campus and the main and back-up helicopter pads will also be upgraded.

The chairman of Altnagelvin Health and Social Services Trust, Mr Denis Desmond, is expected to formally announce the development next week.

Last week Mr Desmond's company, the Desmond clothing manufacturers group, announced the closure of two of its Derry factories with the loss of 315 jobs.

The architects are Hall, Black and Douglas from Belfast and on-site work is expected to start later this year.