Vijayawada: With international stadiums and other major sports facilities in Telangana getting out of the reach of sports aspirants from Seemandhra after bifurcation, development of sports facilities in the region is the need of the hour.
The 13 districts of Seemandhra do not have any full-fledged international stadium, sports tracks on par with the ones in other states of the country or in Telangana.
However, Visakhapa-tnam, which is viewed as an alternative to state capital Hyderabad, has an active international stadium Andhra Cricket Asso-ciation-Vishakapatnam District Cricket Association Cricket Stadium owned by Sports Authority by AP and being operated by ACA.
Also, Visakhapatnam has a multipurpose Swarna Barathi indoor stadium. The rest of the districts in Seemandhra, including Vijayawada, have a few stadiums without basic facilities.
Though Vijayawada is the second largest city in AP, it has no proper platform for sport aspirants to practice.
Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium in Vijayawada, which hosted an international cricket match in 2002, failed to attract tournaments later, as there were no facilities developed despite being established in 1969.
“We have enough facilities for outdoor games and there are many stadiums coming up in rural pockets of the district. However, there is a need for a multipurpose indoor stadium on the lines of Swarna Barathi indoor stadium in Vizag,” said Mr P. Rama Krishna.
“AP is under developed in terms of sports facilities. The government should concentrate on developing facilities here as it is also important in cities. MP Kesineni Srinivas would soon conduct a review meeting with the representatives of various sports associations and district sports authorities and approach central government,” said Mr K. Pattabhiram, vice- president of AP Badminton Association.
He said, there is an immediate need for indoor stadium with at least eight courts in the city. Meanwhile, representatives of several sports associations are initiating to lobby for Andhra Pradesh to host National Games, 2018.
"Hosting national level games would benefit the local players a lot. For the National games in 2002 international level facilities including stadiums are developed in Gachibowli , Hyderabad and local players are still utilising those facilities. Similarly hosting such event in cities of AP would help the local players in long run", a source said.
