The sports ministry will establish Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCE) under the Khelo India scheme in every State and Union Territory. This will help to create a robust sports infrastructure across the country. The Ministry has so far identified state-owned sports facilities in a total of 8 states that include Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, and Telangana.
The following eight centres in the respective states will be upgraded under the KISCE scheme.
Sangey Lhaden Sports Academy, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
Jaiprakash Narayan National Youth Center, Bangalore, Karanataka
GV Raja Sr. Secondary Sports School, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, Imphal, Manipur
Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Aizawl, Mizoram
State Sports Academy, IG Stadium, Kohima, Nagaland
Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha
Regional Sports School, Hakimpet, Telangana.
The process of shortlisting of these facilities started in October 2019 when states were asked to identify the best sports infrastructure available with them to be developed into state of the art sporting facilities. The above 8 were shortlisted from a list of 15 based on existing facilities available in priority sports, infrastructure and champions produced.
The Centre will provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to support critical gaps such as procuring expert coaches, equipment, and infrastructure through the Khelo India Scheme while the respective State/UT takes full responsibility of running and maintaining the centre.
Speaking on this, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju, said that these centres will help grow India’s excellence in the Olympic Games. This setup is made to level up all the sports facilities in various states of India.
He added further, the sports facilities have been actively looked into by the government committee.
He expressed confidence that this step will bring out the hidden talent in the states and will help in making world-class Olympic champions.