Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Cabinet today approved construction of 89 Multi-Purpose Indoor Stadiums under the “Urban Sports Infrastructure Development Project’ at a total project cost of Rs 693.35 crores to be completed over the next 18 months. This will provide a major boost for the development of sports in the State.
The State Government has been focusing on development of Sports in Odisha. In recent years, the State has been recognised as a leading destination for sports events and promotion of sports, Under the 5 T initiative, this project has been taken up to ensure transformation of the Sports sector in the state. As per direction of the Hon’ble Chief Minister, the Stakeholder meetings were conducted with the people representatives and the sportspersons in all these locations and the facilities and design has been made based on these discussions.
Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) areas act as main centres for sports-related activities including coaching. “Urban Sports Infrastructure Development Project” is proposed for ensuring provision of quality sports infrastructure across ULBs of the State. As part of the project, indoor stadiums are proposed to be constructed in 89 (eighty-nine) locations in different ULBs, where such facilities are not available currently.
These indoor stadiums are built for multi-purpose utility. The stadiums will have facilities for playing Badminton, Table Tennis, Yoga, Gymnasium, etc. The indoor hall space can be utilised for most of the indoor games and can be converted as per the local popularity of various indoor sports. The indoor stadiums are also designed to withstand 200 kmph wind speed.
The stadiums can be utilised as community shelters during the disasters like cyclones, floods etc. In times of pandemics, the stadium can be converted into a 50-bed (NAC Model) or 100-bed (Municipality model) field hospital.
The Stadiums will be an asset for the ULBs which can be utilised for training, meetings, examination centres etc. With this project, the image of Odisha as an emerging Sports powerhouse will be further strengthened.