The sports lovers in Ladakh are now ready to experience the all-new synthetic track and open Astroturf for a football stadium under the Khelo India Programme initiative of the Government of India. The estimated cost to build this synthetic track and football turf is Rs. 10.68 crores and built at an altitude of 11,000 ft approx. The construction has been done in the Spituk belt at Leh.
Anurag Thakur, Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports and Information & Broadcasting, took to his Twitter and tweeted the information of the stadium opening up at Leh.
Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of Law & Justice, also took to Twitter and expressed his satisfaction on completion of sports projects in Ladakh in less than two years, even in the pandemic.
What Is The Khelo India Programme?
The Khelo India Programme was introduced to revive the sports culture in India at a grass-root level by building a solid framework for all sports played in India and establishing our country as a great sporting nation.
To accomplish the programme's objectives, it had been divided into 12 components. Some of them are Talent Search & Development, Play Field Development, Annual Sports Competition, Sports For Women, Physical Fitness Of School Children etc. Talented players identified in priority sports disciplines at various levels by the High-Powered Committee would be provided annual financial assistance of Rs. 5 lakh per annum for eight years.
Achievements Under The Khelo India Programme
In June 2020, the decision was taken by the Sports Ministry to open four Khelo India Centres (KICs) in Madhya Pradesh for Rs. 40 Lakhs across four districts, 16 KICs in Manipur for Rs. 1.60 crores, 36 KICs in 30 districts in Maharashtra for Rs. 3.60 crores, 52 KICs in 52 districts in Arunachal Pradesh for Rs. 5.2 crores, 31 KICs in Karnataka for Rs. 1.55 crores. Sports Ministry also approved the opening of KICs in other states.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports released a press release in 2019 of the significant achievements of the Khelo India Scheme.
133 new sports infrastructure projects were approved in 27 states/union territories for Rs. 826 crores. 2437 sportspersons in 20 sports disciplines were selected under Talent Search & Development. Khelo India Mobile Application was successfully launched to enable the general public to get information and ease of access to the various aspects of the game. Under the Physical Fitness Of School Going Children component, 1168 schools and 23,947 assessors were registered.
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