Hyderabad: If all goes well, Hyderabad will soon house a Regional Centre of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) at the multi-purpose Gachibowli Stadium. Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel has accepted in principle the proposal put forward by Sports Authority of Telangana State chairman A. Venkateshwar Reddy last month.
Mr Reddy had lobbied with the Sports Ministry and handed over a written proposal to Injeti Srinivas, Union sports secretary and SAI director-general in Delhi, pledging Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s offer to make the Gachibowli Stadium available to set up the Regional Centre.
As the first step towards the same, an inspection team headed by the Regional Director of SAI, Netaji Subhas Southern Centre (NSSC) in Bengaluru are scheduled to visit the Gachibowli Stadium on Wednesday and hold discussions with State government officials to assess the feasibility for establishment of Regional Centre.
Should the meeting fructify, Hyderabad will be the hub of sporting activity with athletes and teams visiting the city for various events, training/ preparatory camps as well as practice sessions. It will be SAI’s third centre in the South, after Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education (LNCPE) in Trivandrum and the NSSC in Bengaluru.
However, state bureaucrats fear that SAI Regional Centre would mean losing control over the sprawling Gachibowli Stadium and handing its reigns to the Central government. To counter such a scenario, SATS officials have lined up supplementary plans.
Upgrading the Sports Training Centre (STC) at Saroornagar or establishing the SAI Regional Centre at the Telangana Sports School in Hakimpet by taking up large-scale construction are options. Mr Reddy is upbeat though. “I am trying to convince officials and am confident that the project will come through,” he says.
