The incidence of blindness is the highest in the Northeastern Region of the country. Blindness is more prevalent among the economically underprivileged section of the society. Trained human resource and infrastructural facilities for eye care is very scanty in the Northeastern Region. The per capita income of the inhabitants of North Eastern Region is far below the national average. Hence, a huge number of eye patients continue to suffer either for non-availability of appropriate treatment or for economic reasons. This has also resulted in an exodus of patients to different states for treatment.

It was therefore the realization of Their Holiness the Sankaracharyas of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Kanchipuram to establish a modern eye hospital with all facilities to serve the people of the Northeast. With this aim and objective, a charitable trust for establishing an eye hospital in Guwahati was formed with some eminent personalities from different walks of life of the region as its trustees for the purpose. It is the determination and unrelenting efforts of these trustees towards the fulfillment of Their Holiness' desire that saw the establishment of Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya in Guwahati. It was the kind gesture of a philanthropic tea-planter Sri Dipankar Chatterjee of Kolkata to donate his building to the Trust for this purpose.
The grand alliance of few like-minded doctors headed by Dr. Harsha Bhattacharjee, without any self-interest, to form the base of Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya for providing their selfless service to the people led to the conception of this beautiful institution. Above all, it is the people's participation that led to the establishment of Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya, a premier eye hospital in the Northeast India, on 14th October 1994, named after the great Vaishnavite Saint of the region, Srimanta Sankardev.
The Nethralaya is a non-profit service organization in view of the fact that it was established by a registered charitable trust - Sri Kanchi Sankara Health and Educational Foundation. It is the only state-of-the-art ophthalmic service centre as well as a postgraduate training institute in the entire northeast. Established out of public donations, bank loans, Govt Grants etc. and with a team of dedicated doctors & staff it is a professional institution rendering quality eye care services with highest moral, legal and ethical standards.

The services of the hospital were dedicated to the nation on 24th November 1995 by the then Prime Minister of India P. V. Narasimha Rao and the subsequent visit of the former President of India, His Excellency, Shri K. R. Narayanan on 9th November 1998 also glorified the institution. Divine grace, untiring human effort and an efficient management saw the institution grow over the years to establish itself as the benchmark of eye care services in the entire north eastern states of India and is one of the best in the whole of the country.

As the demand for its services grew manifold over the years and the need for expansion of its services arose, the hospital embarked on a plan to construct its own building.

It was felt that the proposed hospital building of Nethralaya could be built with the help and support of the Govt. of Assam, Govt. of India, North Eastern Council and other philanthropic organizations.

Accordingly, a new building of its own was constructed and the main Hospital campus was relocated to the new building premises on 26th October 2001.

The hospital building has various departments such as Out Patient Departments (OPD), Ward, Electronic Medical Record Dept., Optical Dispensing unit, Pharmacy and so on. It has also set up a state-of-the-art Laboratory for Microbiology, Biochemistry, Histopathology and PCR. Keeping in tune with the challenges and technological advancements of the 21st century the Nethralaya today is able to serve with more precision and perfection, offering services of all the subspecialty clinics such as cataract & refractive, medical retina, uvea, contact lens, low vision aids, cornea, ocular prosthesis, electro diagnostics, orbit and oculoplasty, medical photography, retina, glaucoma, squint and orthoptics, Botox, General Anesthesia with ICUs etc. The latest additions to its long list of facilities include the LASIK centre- FLACS, Optic Canal/ Nerve Decompression: Navigation guided and ROP Clinic. Over and above, it also has 11 state-of-the-art Operation Theatres and an ICU.

The year 1997 also saw the establishment of a state-of-the-art Eye Bank of Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya affiliated to the Indian Eye Bank Association.
It is today a high volume Eye Bank and has facilitated the highest number of corneal transplant surgeries in the entire north east and provides humane service to the poor and needy and is also the first accredited Corneal Transplant Centre of the Northeastern Region.
Nethralaya has always been guided by its policy that quality eye care services must be made available to all strata of the society irrespective of their economic status or historic nature of geographical locations. It is with this policy that it has assisted in the development of human and technical resources in a number of hospitals in the Northeastern States.

The Consultants of Nethralaya are well experienced and trained in clinical and surgical procedures of their respective subspecialties. They regularly attend National and International Conferences to update their knowledge.

Every year Consultants are sent for overseas training to update themselves on the latest techniques and procedures of ophthalmic care.

Moreover, the consultants of the institution have had more than 200 publications of their scientific papers in state, national as well as international peer reviewed journals of ophthalmology.

The institution was also visited by the then Prime Minister Dr. S. Manmohan Singh on 21st November 2004. It was a moment of glory for the entire institution when the Hon’ble Prime Minister declared the institution as a "Centre of Excellence" in recognition of its services in the field of Ophthalmology. Later the institution was also privileged by the visit of the former President of India, His Excellency, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam on 16th March 2007.