Visakhapatnam: Vizag would host national athletic games in November. Sports department special chief secretary L.V. Subramanyam had asked the district officials to keep all the stadia in the district ready for the national event. A swimming academy will be launched in the city on Aug 29 by the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP). Mr Subramanyam held a review meeting with district collector N. Yuvaraj, GVMC commissioner Praveen Kumar and Vuda vice-chairman G Babu Rao Naidu and other senior officials regarding improving sports facilities in Vizag.
He said that Chief Minister N. Chandrabau Naidu is determined to make Vizag a sports hub and the state is aiming to host national games in 2018 and most of the major events are planned at Vizag. Referring to the proposal of RINL offering its land to develop a sports stadium, the senior government official said the government is ready to prepare necessary plans and implement the project on PPP mode. He also added that state government had no objections even if the RINL builds the stadia and manage them.
Mr Subramanyam also said that synthetic track will be developed in the proposed stadium in Kommadi in which state and national level sports authorities will conduct various sports training camps jointly and regularly. He will inaugurate a stadium constructed at Yelamanchali shortly. He asked the district officials to divide the district into various clusters as per the sporting activities and create facilities like football, hockey, volley ball badminton etc and create sports facilities accordingly. Yuvaraj explained that various grounds are planned a various places across the district at a cost of Rs 14lakhs.
