Ministry plans to turn JLN into a sports city

young new delhi: The showpiece Jawaharlal jawaharlal nehru arena in the working capital, built for the 1982 Asian Games, will give way to a modern Sports City if the Union Sports Ministry’s plans to redevelop the existing infrastructure and make it a multipurpose state-of-the-art facility come to fruition.

A Sports Ministry official said plans are still at a nascent stage and they are looking at world class sporting infrastructure in Dubai (Sports City) and Australia for the purpose.

“A new world class Sports City is being planned after dismantling the infrastructure at the JLN Stadium. The Sports City will have modern infrastructure, competition and training venues for several sports disciplines and residential facilities for the athletes. The plans are still at an initial stage and different models of sports cities from around the world like one in Dubai and Australia are being studied,” the official said.

The JLN has seen it all. The iconic venue, owned and managed by the Sports Authority of India, has been witness to several historic and memorable sporting events of India. It was built for the 1982 Asian Games and hosted the athletics competition and the opening and closing ceremonies. During the 2010 Commonwealth Games, JLN was the venue for athletics and weightlifting competitions besides holding the breathtaking opening and closing ceremonies for the sporting spectacle. The floodlit venue has also hosted India’s first day and night cricket match in 1984 against Australia, and under-17 FIFA World Cup matches.

The main stadium was recently refurbished and a Mondo track was laid for the Para World Athletics Championships which was held in October. The venue has two synthetic turfs for athletics, and a football pitch, with a seating capacity of 60,000. Besides, there are indoor halls for weightlifting, badminton and table tennis. It also has facilities for basketball, volleyball, lawn tennis and archery.

There is a residential wing for athletes and a gymnasium was recently inaugurated. The SAI headquarters, the National Anti Doping Agency, the National Dope Testing Laboratory and a few other government offices are located in the JLN premises. It is a major training venue for track and field athletes who come from nearby cities of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCR region to train. It is built over a sprawling 102 acres. The offices will be relocated for the purpose.

“Out of over 100 acres, only 28 percent of land is currently used in the infrastructure. If you look at the modern sporting venues across the world, the stadiums are all multipurpose competition and training venues. Technology has changed so much that one stadium can now accommodate so many disciplines. The new Sports City will be a multi-purpose sporting venue, with sports clubs, residential facility, avenues for entertainment etc,” said the official.

“With India pitching to host the 2036 Olympics and 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad, we want to build the best infrastructure in sports that can be utilised to the full.”

The Doha Sports city, built across over 600 acres, has the world’s largest indoor multi-purpose sports dome, the Khalifa International Stadium that has hosted major football, athletics and other major international events, training facilities for other sports, a hospital and hotel, the 2022 FIFA World Cup and World Athletics Championships was hosted there.

In India, Ahmedabad is developing modern sports infrastructure for the 2030 Commonwealth Games. The city has also been pitched for the 2036 Olympics. The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave, which also houses the Narendra Modi Stadium, the world’s largest cricket ground with a capacity of over one lakh, will be the the main venue for CWG. According to officials aware of development, the Complex will feature 10 new stadiums with permanent and temporary venues for sports like gymnastics, skateboarding, softball and tennis. It will have a football stadium, aquatics centre, 18,000-seat indoor arena, an athletes village and hotels.

The sports complex in Naranpura is also being developed as a multi-sport hub with an aquatics centre, an indoor multisport arena, a Centre for Sports Excellence, and community sports facilities.

Coaches

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports will recruit over 320 assistant coaches across 25 sports disciplines to fill the void of coaches in the Sports Authority of India, marking it the first such major induction of coaches since 2017. Over 50% of the posts will be reserved for women coaches.

“This is the first phase of the drive to recruit coaches. We will have a second phase of recruitment with the same number of vacancies. This strategic recruitment will play a key role in advancing India’s sporting ambitions in the years ahead,” said Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya during an interaction with media.

More than 320 vacancies across over 25 sports disciplines will be filled through direct recruitment. The recruitment process is being designed in line with the government’s medal strategy for the Olympic and Asian Games, focusing on disciplines with strong medal potential.

“We need to build a strong, inclusive, and performance-driven coaching ecosystem, aligned with India’s vision of emerging as a global sporting powerhouse. This will not only address the shortage of women coaches in the country,” he said.

“The initiative aligns with the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to make India a global sporting powerhouse and to strengthen the nation’s sporting ecosystem through transparent, merit-based systems and institutional capacity building,” the Union Minister further added.

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