The Indian Sports Ministry has decided to set up sports facilities in four Northeastern states including Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland under the flagship of Khelo India Scheme. The ministry will be establishing Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCE) in each state and union territory, with an effort to create a vigorous sporting network in the entire nation.
The ministry has identified eight sports facilities, to convert them into Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE) in the first phase.
The ministry has identified state-owned sports facilities in Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Telengana apart from the four Northeastern states mentioned above. The list of the selected sports facilities are as follows-
- Sangey Lhaden Sports Academy, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
- Jaiprakash Narayan National Youth Center, Bangalore, Karanataka
- GV Raja Sr. Secondary Sports School, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
- Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, Imphal, Manipur
- Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Aizawl, Mizoram
- State Sports Academy, IG Stadium, Kohima, Nagaland
- Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha
- Regional Sports School, Hakimpet, Telangana.
Talking about the project Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju said, “The Khelo India State Centre of Excellence are being established to strengthen India’s pursuit for excellence in Olympics. Our effort is to scale up the best sporting facilities available in each state in India into academies of world-class standard, where athletes from all over the country will want to train in their specific discipline. The sporting facilities have been identified after in-depth analysis by a government committee. I am confident that this is a step in the right direction to tap talent from across the country and train them into elite athletes who can win medals for the country in all major international tournaments, and specifically the Olympics.”
The selection process began in the month of October last year when each state and UT was asked to identify the best sports infrastructure available with them, their agencies or any eligible agencies, which could be developed into a world-class sporting facilities. Out of the 15 proposals, 8 states have been shortlisted by the ministry based on the training facilities available in priority sports, infrastructure facilities and champion produced by the centre.
(Feature image source: NewsMeter)
