Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting "high-level" with Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, other ministers and senior officers and reviewed preparation of building sports infrastructure as part of a campaign around hosting Olympic games.
Chief minister Bhupendra Patel tweeted late on Friday evening about the meeting. The tweets said, "Gujarat has started preparatory works related to the 2036 Olympics as a host. In this regard, participated in a high-level meeting chaired by union home and cooperative minister Amitbhai Shah in Ahmedabad."
The chief minister further added, "Amitbhai Shah gave guidance to ensure arrangements including required sports infrastructure, accommodation facilities for payers-coaches etc are built in accordance with the norms of the Olympics at places selected by Gujarat government for the Olympic games and regular review of these works."
Last year in November, consulting agency PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt Ltd, appointed by Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA), had made a presentation before with the state officials and identified 22 sites in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar which had the potential for hosting the further Olympic Games.
The government had announced that it would start engaging with International Olympic Committee (IOC), notifying the international body of its intention to host the 2036 Olympics in Ahmedabad. The government had also claimed that after assessing infrastructure required, AUDA "already initiated the next phase of activities to start a dialogue with the IOC for the candidature of Ahmedabad as a host city for a future edition of Summer Olympics."
As a matter of fact, aiming for hosting the sports extravaganza in 2036 is also part of BJP's election manifesto, which was released recently before the Assembly elections. In the manifesto, the ruling party had claimed that it would launch the "Gujarat Olympics Mission."
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