Several underprivileged young sporting talents may soon find a way to achieve their dreams. South Delhi Municipal Corporation has plans to start the first municipality-run sports talent search academy-cum-residential training school.
Officials said children from SDMC schools, mostly from the disadvantaged groups, would be provided free sports training at the academy to be set up on 7 acres in Punjabi Bagh. An old existing stadium at Hari Nagar is also being renovated for these children.
According to SDMC officials, the upcoming academy will be on the lines of Motilal Nehru School of Sports at Rai, in Sonepat, providing training in cricket, hockey, football, athletics, swimming, basketball, lawn tennis and volleyball, among others. They said the engineering department of the corporation has been asked to begin renovation of the existing infrastructure for the sports academy.
The location was identified during a joint inspection by SDMC Commissioner Manish Gupta and chairman of the education committee Satish Upadhyay on Tuesday. Earlier, a resolution for setting up a well-equipped sports academy was also passed by the education committee. "The upcoming training centre will also serve as a sports talent search academy. The idea behind opening the facility is to promote children, especially from economically weaker sections, in sports," Upadhyay said.
The sports-cum-residential school would have both outdoor and indoor facilities. Besides outdoor games, there will also be adequate facilities for gymnastics, wrestling, boxing and other indoor games.
"Modalities are being worked out. A team of experts will be hired for preparing the blueprint. The required infrastructure will be procured and trainers will be hired once the ground work is completed. Officials have been asked to prepare the design for the residential block," said Upadhyay. The corporation has also made a budgetary provision of Rs 1 crore for the Hari Nagar stadium.