In lines with Gujarat Government's successful initiative 'Khel Mahakumbh', the Central Government will start 'Khele India' in which crores of players would participate from across the country in near future, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad on Friday evening before boarding flight to New Delhi.
Addressing a function to mark launch of the Rs 500 crore state-of-the-art stadium near historic Kankaria lake situated in Maninagar constituency from where he used to get elected as MlA, Modi said that he wanted India to win gold medals in Olympics.
He also launched Khel Mahakumbh - 2017 in which more than 30 lakh players in more than 20 sports are expected to participate. Khel Mahakumbh is the brainchild of Modi when he was Gujarat Chief Minister to promote sports culture in Gujarat. First edition of Khel Mahakumbh started in 2010 which received overwhelming response.
He insisted that there was need to begin a movement in India to make sports an integral part of people's lives.
He remarked that sportspersons required encouragement from family and society coupled with basic infrastructure.
PM Modi who had night halt at Governor's House in the State Capital Gandhinagar began his second day of his 2-day visit to Gujarat by inaugurating Rs 550 crore Narmada project based water supply scheme for over 600 villages in North Gujarat at Modasa town of Aravalli district.
Addressing a gathering there he said that the Gujarat model of development was being discussed in great details as the BJP Governments in the State and at the Centre had focused on holistic approach of development and finding permanent solutions to the problems.
"Our Governments stopped unnecessary earth digging carried out as part of the relief works during drought period only to draw electoral mileage," he said, adding that his Government had ensured that the farmers across the state were receiving water through various irrigation schemes.
On possibility of developing tourism in the region he said that there was a general notion that lord Buddha was popular in the eastern belt of the country only. But the excavation at Dev ni Mori near Shamlaji temple (in Aravalli) some time back has established that lord Buddha's influence had reached the western belt too, he added. ''It is my dream to build a grand monument of lord Buddha at Dev ni Mori so that people from across the world can come here and visit this place," he said expressing intent of building a grand monument for lord Buddha in the region.
later on he inaugurating Textile India 2017 exhibition and summit at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar he described India as a bright spot in global economy and claimed the country has emerged as one of the most attractive global investment destination.
''The textile sector offers significant employment opportunities. It is today our second largest employer after agriculture,'' he said stressing on the clothing diversity of India to be catalogued and mapped to earmark strengths and specialities of each state.
Praising leadership of PM Modi Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu said that the country growing at 7 per cent and hopefully would develop at double digit in coming days. Apart from Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani, Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani and captains of Indian textile industry attended the function.