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Sports infrastructure to get a boost in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: The city of Ahmedabad is set to become India's sports capital in coming years. On Wednesday, the brand new cricket stadium at Motera was renamed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Not just that, the Sardar Patel Sports Enclave, which houses the cricket venue, will also see 50 new sporting facilities here in the next few

years. Considering that the Sardar Patel Stadium at Motera, now named after the Prime Minister, has been built in four years and there is every possibility that the city's sporting landscape will change drastically.

The Bhumi Pooja for the new sports facilities was done at a brief function which was attended by President Ram Nath Kovind, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and other officials from the Gujarat state government.

Speaking at length, Amit Shah spoke of how he wanted to see "his city" become the sporting capital. The 123-acre complex is set to undergo a huge change. "We will build infrastructure and have training facilities for every Olympic sports discipline in this sports enclave. We will have a hockey stadium named after (legend) Dhyan Chand. If venues have to be built for hosting the Olympics, Ahmedabad can do it in six months," said Shah emphatically.

On a day when the Pink Ball Test match between India and England saw the hosts tighten the choke, the entire focus was on building sports facilities so that India can produce more medal winners at the Asia Games and Olympics.

Sports minister Kiren Rijiju spoke of how the Khelo India programme and the Fit India Movement are going to be game-changers. Rijiju, who has taken active interest in the well being of athletes in India and has looked into small things as well, was hopeful the infrastructure in and around will be beneficial to all. The brand new sporting venues are being planned on PPP model (private, public partnership model).

After the success of rebuilding the cricket stadium, where private players have also been roped in, there is every hope the facilities for multiple sporting disciplines like swimming, hockey and tennis can come up fast in a city which has seen huge development.

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