The States of Assam, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya and Sikkim have been identified in the second leg.
Earlier this year, the Ministry had identified eight centres including Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Telengana and the north east states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland in the first leg. Their existing centres will be upgraded into Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE).
These centres have been shortlisted based on the training facilities available in priority sports, infrastructure facilities and champions produced by the centre. The sports facilities were selected by each State and Union Territory, who 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 the KISCE, the government will extend a ‘Viability Gap Funding’ in sports science and technology support for sports disciplines practiced at the centre and also bridge the gaps in requirement of sports equipment, expert coaches and high performance managers.
The support extended will be to a maximum of 3 Olympic sports per center, though support can be extended in sports science and allied fields in other sporting disciplines being run in the centre.
The six centres include:
Assam – State Sports Academy, Sarjusajai Sports Complex, Guwahati
Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu – New Sports Complex, Silvassa
Maharashtra – Sree Shiv Chhatrapati Shivaji Sports Complex, Balewadi, Pune
Madhya Pradesh – MP Academy, Bhopal
Meghalaya – JNS Complex Shillong
Sikkim – Paljor Stadium, Gangtok
By: Tapas Bhattacharya