Union Secretary of Sports, Rajiv Yadav and Chief Secretary, B R Sharma in a meeting convened here Friday reviewed the implementation of the Rs 200 Cr special package announced under the PMDP-2015 for development of Sports infrastructure in J&K.Speaking on the occasion, Mr Yadav said that the package is set to boost sports infrastructure as ‘State of Art’ sports facilities will be developed in both the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu besides indoor sports halls will also be developed in all 22 districts.He said creation of water sports infrastructure in both Kashmir and Jammu will receive special focus under the package besides the Union Sports Ministry will also be conducting 8 weeks certificate course for coaches from J&K. Till date 171 applications have been received for the programme which will commence from 1st November at NIS Patiala.It was informed that the Sports infrastructure will be developed through agencies of the Union and the State Government i.e National Projects Construction Corporation Ltd (NPCC) and J&K Sports Council respectively.
Rs 84 Cr shall be spent on developing Bakhshi Stadium Srinagar and MAM Stadium Jammu into ‘State of Art’ stadiums along with facilities of synthetic tracks and turf for Athletics and Hockey and swimming pools. Rs 2.63 Cr shall be spent on lighting system in synthetic football ground at TRC and Gani memorial stadium Srinagar. Similarly, Rs 6 Cr has been earmarked for development of infrastructure for Water Sports activities in the State. All these components of the package shall be executed by the Union Government through NPCC.A team of the Project Management Consultant (NPCC) has already visited Bakhshi Stadium Srinagar and MAM Stadium Jammu in the month of September for inspection and preliminary study, following which a presentation on the design of the stadiums was made. A tripartite agreement is in the process of being signed by GOI, State Government and the NPCC.
Further, it was informed that J&K Sports Council has already set in the motion the process for the construction of multipurpose indoor sports halls. It was informed that locations in 12 districts have already been identified and DPRs of these have been formulated. For expediting identification of land in the remaining districts, Secretary Youth Services and Sports Department was asked to coordinate with the respective DCs.Under the project, an amount of Rs 4 Cr will be spent in upgrading existing stadiums in Poonch and Rajouri districts for which works have been awarded. Similarly, the formulation of DPR for construction of an outdoor stadium at Udhampur is under process.Meanwhile, Chief Secretary instructed that two sub-committees headed by the respective Divisional Commissioner’s be constituted to facilitate coordination in the implementation of the Sports package and to timely address any arising issue.On organizing sports competitions between schools, colleges and the universities, it was decided in the meeting that a sports calendar shall be formulated and accordingly different sports events will be organized in all the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladkah. Funds to the tune of Rs. 5.00 Cr have been released by the Union Sports Ministry to the J&K Sports Council for organizing various sporting activities. The GoI has also released Rs. 1.06 Cr for conduct of District & State level competitions.In addition, Action Plan for an amount of Rs 33 Cr under the scheme “Khelo India” for 2016-17 has also been submitted to Centre for approval.