Govt Makes Sporting Infrastructure Accessible to All

Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports has decided to allow national and state sports federations, leagues and clubs to organise sports events in all sporting facilities owned by the government, free of cost in order to further the Fit India Movement and to make playfields and sporting infrastructure accessible, without fee, to all sports persons across the country from November 1, 2019. The sporting facilities will also be accessible free of cost to coaches training athletes who are not part of camps organised in Sports Authority of India (SAI) centers. The decision was taken with the view that people must have access to playfields and sporting infrastructure so that the culture of playing sport and therefore of fitness, becomes a way of life for Indians.

In the first phase, stadiums in Delhi including Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Indira Gandhi Stadium, Major Dhyanchand Stadium and Karni Singh Shooting Range will be opened up for state and national federations to host competitions, tournaments and leagues of all sporting disciplines. The federations and leagues will not be charged for use of the facilities in these stadia.

The new policy will also allow non-SAI coaches to train their athletes at the stadia without any charge, provided that the coach has a minimum of at least 10 wards under his/her training. Training sessions can be booked by a coach online from November 1 and the coach can charge a reasonable training fee from his/her trainees. Youngsters who aren’t training for any sport professionally will also have access to these stadia and can play a game of their choice by advance online booking against available slots. They would have to get their photo identity cards made from SAI at nominal cost.

To ensure focussed use of the available infrastructure, each stadium is being earmarked for a specific sport. JLN will host football leagues, training and competitions organised by federations, while IG stadium will be earmarked for wrestling, boxing, judo and badminton. Shooting competitions will be hosted at KSSR and hockey and swimming at National Stadium.

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