Rs 3 crore for Kanteerava Stadium facelift

Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru will bid goodbye to its water-logging and drainage woes with the State government earmarking Rs 3 crore in the budget solely for pupose of maintenance and upgrading of the sports facility.

The Sports and Youth Services Department said the underground drainage at the stadium was very bad and the funds much-needed funds would help improve it. This apart, Rs 3.5 crore has been allocated for the installation of a new hockey turf and floodlights at the Hockey Stadium in Langford Town, Bengaluru.

“Kanteerava Indoor Stadium was built in 1997 and the drainage system has not been upgraded since then. We will undertake painting of the stadium and upgrade the sanitary network once the project is approved. We had earlier requested for funds from the government for upgrading the stadium,” said Joint Director (Youth Services), Ramesh M S. He said the Rs 3.5 crore allocated for upgrading the hockey stadium would be just about enough for a new hockey turf and not for installing floodlights.

A total outlay of Rs 170 crore has been provided to the department, which is higher compared to the last financial year (Rs 145 crore). Ramesh said the department had, however, sought Rs 261 crore in this year’s budget.

The other schemes included are distribution of two Kabaddi mats to every district at a cost of Rs 3.60 crore; formation of Yuva Kreeda Sanghas in villages; construction of stadiums in all taluks and development of playgrounds in villages; setting up of Water Adventure Sports Centre at a cost of Rs six crore; conversion of six sports hostels in the State into sports academies; and group insurance facility for international and national sportspersons of Ka­r­nataka.­

Sportspersons of Karnataka, who have received the Arjuna, Rajeev Khel Ratna and Dronacharya Awards will be entitled to free travel facility in KSRTC buses. A grant of Rs 2.5 crore would be given to traditional wrestling houses. Also on the anvil is digitisation of the programmes introduced by the department – sports scholarship, cash incentives, awards among others.