Brighter future of sports facilities: District Sports Officer Vijay Santan

District Sports Officer Vijay Santan vowed for a brighter future of sports facilities in the district and expected more promise in terms of results in the upcoming season. 

The sports officer was invited by the Sports Journalist Association of Nagpur for an interaction with local media-persons at its Vivekanand Nagar-based office on Monday. Citing the ongoings at the Nagpur District Sports Complex in Mankapur, Santan expressed delight over the efforts that have been exercised in the campus over the course of the past 12 months and has also incepted rays of hope for next period. Santan, who is also additionally holding the district sports assistant director’s office, briefed, “Undoubtedly the complex has organised a host of sports-related activities in the previous session. Especially the DSO office has taken several steps to enhance sports at the school level. Apart from this, various sports camps and a national level powerlifting competition have also been housed under this roof. A large number of sportspersons can be found training round the clock inside the indoor facility.”

Having said that, Santan accepted that a more robust planning to provide specialisation in field and track events needs to be put in place, and i

nformed that a committee has been working on the same. He said, “Beyond the bounds of indoor games, there is a shortage of other facilities available in the complex. Specifically athletics and other sports like football are been overlooked as a result. But within the coming 18-24 months, a more adamantine setup including synthetic tracks will be installed.”

The officer stated the known fact that you can not continuously produce a herd of sportspersons without a proper infrastructure to foster them. Being the second capital of Maharashtra, Nagpur deserves a fully-equipped sports complex for its embryonic sporting talents to enable them to compete with the state’s best. 

Proposal for Youth Hostel 

Santan accentuated that a proposal to construct youth hostels inside the campus of the sports complex has been forwarded to the state sports department. As per the blueprint, a total of 100 rooms and 2 big halls are in the pipeline for the players, officials and coaches who are a part of the competitions being put up at the complex. This will result in a larger utilisation of the complex and also will attract more events in its vicinity. 

Involvement of corporates

Under the Corporate Social Responsibility ruling, efforts are being made to direct the same for organisning school-level competitions, said Santan. An increased influx of capital will nothing but speed up the development of sports. He told that old wrestling rings have been identified in the area and a sum of Rs 7 lakh has been assigned for the renovation of each one. 

4 inter-school events

Tournaments from as many as four different sports have been delegated to the sports complex in the coming session. This includes women’s basketball apart from boys and girls powerlifting, kho-kho and woodball events. A bid to host the national volleyball tournament is also being made add to this. 

Website to surface soon

The DSO office is planning to launch a website in the near future. It will provide an active medium to inform mass audiences about the schedules, results, players and results from the local world of sport.