Amaravati: The state government has decided to launch six new sports academies and four water sports academies in various places of the state from August 15.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) officials to establish sports academies at Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Gudivada, Narasaraopet, Nellore, Anantapur, and four water sports academies at Vijayawada, Nagayalanka, Jangareddygudem and Tadipudi on August 15.
The government will provide Rs 20 crore per annum for the maintenance of these academies and these academies will have 80 expert sports persons training students.
The Chief Minister reviewed the progress of Sports Authority of AP (SAAP) and AP State Skill Development Corporation at the Secretariat on Friday.
Officials from both the departments presented the reports, that had followed up with suggestions and instructions given by the Chief Minister in the last review meeting. Speaking on the occasion Chief Minister has asked them to provide training in shooting, athletics, swimming, badminton, judo, taekwondo, weight lifting and other sports in these academies.
Emphasizing the need for more sports stadiums in Vijayawada he directed them to construct indoor and outdoor stadiums in the city. He asked the officials to prepare plans for developing Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Amaravati as sports cities in the state.
The meeting has also decided to establish another sports school at Lambasingi in Visakhapatnam district. The Chief Minister insisted that every village must be connected to a play-field and continuously hold events, tournaments and activities across the state which will lead up to higher levels, where players and interested teams will compete and train in the state level.
“Every activity will be recorded in a state-wide database connected to the CM’s dashboard. All the details of participants and activities in the state must be recorded in the portal, so that we can measure the outcome”, Naidu said.
The Chief Minister also instructed the officials to start maintaining a sports events calendar, and include all games and athletic activities. Trekking, water sports and other adventure sports must be our new focus areas, he said.
SAAP officials proposed that intra and inter university competitions of all 13 universities will compete for an award, which will be called as CM cup.
This will encourage physical activity along with academics. They presented that the total number of play fields across all 13 districts is 3,036, with a total outlay of Rs 151.8 crore.
By the end of August, all of them will be customized according to the locally preferred school sports and activities.
Sports Development Centres across the state, called Kreeda Vikas Kendras, are indoor and outdoor facilities for sports and recreation. 30 of them were completed in 2016-17 and 62 of them will completed by 2017-18.
Note: News shared for public awareness with reference from the information provided at online news portals.
