A Khelo India Centre (KIC) and a Sports Sciences Center will soon be coming up in Mandya, the sugar bowl of Karnataka, and a sum of ₹2 crore had been sanctioned to facilitate their formation.
The idea of KIC was announced by the Union Sports Ministry while the Sports Sciences Centre was announced in the State budget for systematically assessing sports talents.
Minister in charge of Mandya district K.C. Narayana Gowda, who is the Minister for Youth Empowerment and Sports, has released ₹10 crore towards the development of District Stadium in Mandya town in a bid to revamp the sporting infrastructure in the district.
A sum of ₹24 lakh had been released for developing an outdoor gym at K.R. Pet taluk stadium.
The unused funds in the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (since 2018) are now being used to develop outdoor gyms in taluk stadiums. A sum of ₹71 lakh was remaining after holding the Dasara CM Cup in 2018-19 and ₹12.90 lakh was unused after hosting the Mini Olympics for Under-14 in Bengaluru in 2019-20. The total of ₹83.97 lakh was available with the Sports Authority of Karnataka.
A decision has been taken to make use of it for developing outdoor gyms in four taluks, including K.R. Pet, Mandya, Kadur and Karkala.
Another outdoor gym in the district is coming at Sir M .Visvesvaraya Stadium in Mandya at a cost of ₹20 lakh. The proposed outdoor gyms at Karkala and Kadur will also be developed at a cost of ₹20 lakh each.
The funds sanctioned for developing sports infrastructure in Mandya include ₹2 crore for developing a sports hostel for girls and ₹7 crore for stadium development in K.R. Pet.
The Minister said the work on developing outdoor gyms in Mandya and K.R. Pet will start soon. This will benefit sportspersons and the general public. The work on the gyms would be taken up at a faster pace to make them ready at the earliest.
By announcing the KICs, the Sports Ministry wanted to nurture talented sporting talents at an early age and ready them for 2028 Olympics. These centres will get equipment, sports kits and coaches for training the talents. The Centre has proposed to set up at least one KIC in each district with the support of respective State governments, which are tasked to rope in mentors to train young athletes.
