North Karnataka gets a boost

To promote sporting activities in north Karnataka, the government will build a sports complex in Dharwad, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar announced during the budget presentation for the year 2013-14 here on Friday.

In the budget, the government has announced plans to construct a couple of stadiums in the rural areas to provide quality infrastructure and coaching to talented youth. The government has earmarked Rs 140 crore for Youth Services Department with the bulk of it going towards infrastructure development.

The sports complex in Dharwad is to be developed in 55 acres of land while the government will spend Rs 7.5 crore to renovate the existing swimming pools in Hubli and Dharwad.

Apart from that, an indoor stadium will be constructed in Hubli at a cost of Rs 10 crore and a stadium will be developed in Ayanoor, Shimoga Taluk.

The government had spent Rs 109 crore for the development of taluk and district stadiums, swimming pools, synthetic tracks and turfs during the past five years. While the construction of Bijapur, Chitradurga and Haveri District stadiums have been completed, work is in progress in other 14 taluk stadiums.