Shillong, Nov 6: The JN Sports Complex in Shillong will receive Rs 8.39 crore over a four-year period to develop it into a Khelo India State Centre of Excellence, it was revealed today.
Union Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, Kiren Rijiju, mentioned this on social media and Chief Minister Conrad Sangma then followed suit and posted a thank you to Rijiju.
It was reported back in September that the JN Sports Complex in Polo was chosen as one of six new centres of excellence, though the amount of financial support had not been intimated then.
Besides Meghalaya, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Sikkim were also identified in the second leg of selection of centres.
In the two other North East states, the venues that will be upgraded are the States Sports Academy, Sarusajai, in Assam, at Rs 7.96 crore and Paljor Stadium, Gangtok, in Sikkim at Rs 7.91 crore.
Meghalaya’s centre will focus on archery, athletics and boxing.
Eight states were chosen in the first round – Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.
These centres were shortlisted based on the training facilities available in priority sports, infrastructure facilities and champions produced. The sports facilities were selected by each state and Union Territory, which was asked to identify the best sports infrastructure available with them or their agencies or any eligible agencies that could be developed into world-class sporting facilities.
In order to upgrade the existing centre to a KISCE, the government will extend ‘viability gap funding’ in sports science and technology support for disciplines practised at the centre and also bridge the gap in requirement of sports equipment, expert coaches and high performance managers.
(TSR photo)
