Agencies asked to finish sports projects on time

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 21

As the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has expressed concern over the slow progress of sports projects, including those sanctioned under the Prime Minister’s Development Package in J&K, the state government has asked the executing agencies to complete all ongoing sports projects on time.

Sources said no funds were released by the Sports Ministry either to the J&K State Sports Council or the Project Management Consultant in 2018, claiming that both bodies had significant unspent balances out of the funds released to them in the previous years.

The ministry had made it clear to the state government that all projects were being monitored closely.

The Governor-led administration, while finalising the state Budget, had also admitted that the sports infrastructure had been neglected in J&K since long.

In order to ensure that all ongoing works of stadiums, playing fields, including game-specific infrastructure, were completed on time, Rs 350 crore has been proposed to be spent by the state government in 2019-2020.

The amount will be spent on the upgrade and strengthening of the sports infrastructure in all three regions – Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. It includes establishment of five synthetic football turfs, five hockey synthetic astro turfs, 90 basketball courts, 80 volleyball courts, 102 badminton court, 50 handball synthetic courts, 500 table tennis courts, four synthetic maintenance machines, seven lawn tennis courts, 40 cricket net/wicket, 24 bowling machines, 22 cricket pitch roller, one shooting range, six swimming pools, eight roller-skating rinks, two climbing walls, two cycling tracks, six synthetic athletic tracks, two archery fields and one synthetic rugby field.

A few months ago, the Secretary, youth services and sports, had taken stock of the ambitious sports projects during a meeting. He had reviewed the establishment of 22 indoor sports stadiums costing Rs 4 crore each, upgrade of Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar at Rs 44 crore and MA stadium in Jammu at Rs 40 crore, renovation of sports stadium in Rajouri and Poonch at an estimated cost of Rs 2 crore each and at Udhampur at Rs 3.68 crore.

Secretary, J&K State Sports Council, Naseem Javed Choudhary said: “We are trying our level best to complete the ongoing sports projects on time. I am hopeful that the executing agencies will complete the projects in the prescribed time limit.”