Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 20: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Farooq Khan, today chaired a meeting to review progress on mega sports development projects being executed in Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting was attended by Director General Budget, M Y Itoo, OSD to Advisor, Mohammad Ashraf Hakak, Secretary J&K Sports Council, Nuzhat Gul and officers from Sports Council.
Advisor had detailed deliberation on various important issues regarding overall development of sports activities and infrastructure as well.
It was informed in the meeting that KK Haku Stadium is being upgraded to FIH standards and will be made available to players soon. Besides, upgradation of Parade football ground as per FIFA norms including the pavilion and other arena facilities will soon be taken up for execution. He added that execution of pending works of Swimming Pool at M A Stadium shall be taken up under CAPEX budget which will be of international standards with all weather usage.
It was further informed that out of Rs.175.04 crore released for execution of sports infrastructure projects Rs.169.75 crore have been incurred under PMDP. Further, out of 31 projects, 20 have been completed while as 9 are expected to be completed by December 2021. Besides, out of 134 projects taken in hand, 95 have been completed while as 38 will be completed during 2021-22 under JKIDFC .
Under Khelo India, 4 works are under progress with a sanctioned cost of Rs.22.48 crore. The works include construction of synthetic hockey turf at Poloview Srinagar, synthetic hockey turf at KK Hakku stadium Jammu and construction of athletic track at sports stadium Bandipora
Under CAPEX budget, 481 works including 171 ongoing works and 310 new works had been taken up, of which, 50 have been completed in sports council.
Farooq Khan said that world class sports infrastructure is being developed in J&K with launching of several mega projects in this regard. He further said that all these measures are being taken up for better utilisation of the sports infrastructure to produce top Athletes.
Advisor, while emphasizing the significance of developing enhanced sports infrastructure in the UT, exhorted upon the executing agencies to ensure timely completion of all ongoing sports projects.