The Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, laid the foundation stone of an Olympic-level sports complex to be constructed at a cost of Rs.632 crore in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, today. Several dignitaries including Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister Shri Anurag Singh Thakur and Union Minister of State for Home Shri Nishith Pramanik attended the program.

On this occasion, in his address, Shri Amit Shah said that today a big dream of the youth of this area is going to come true. There are many schools in the area where there is no ground, so where will these children play. But now by fixing the day of PT in this sports complex, the children of the school, which does not have a ground, will come here to play. Thirty months from today, we will invite Prime Minister Shri NarendraModiji to inaugurate this sports complex and I assure you that I myself will monitor it and ensure that this work is completed in thirty months. Today, as an MP of this region, I express my heartfelt gratitude to the Prime Minister of the country and the son of Gujarat, Shri NarendraModiji, that this complex would never have been built without his cooperation.

Shri Amit Shah said that the Prime Minister of the country, Shri NarendraModi has given many facilities to give Ahmedabad an international name in the field of sports. He said that when Shri NarendraModi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he had started an indoor sports complex in Abad (ABAD) Dairy to play a variety of sports. Apart from this, the world's largest cricket stadium located in Ahmedabad has also been named as NarendraModi Cricket Stadium. Prime Minister Modi has given a huge space near this stadium to build Sardar Patel Sports Complex and with the construction of this sports complex, Ahmedabad will become a city where preparations for the Olympics can be made. With Sardar Patel Sports Complex, Narendra Modi Stadium, Naranpura Sports Complex and three other sports complexes, our preparation of international level grounds, stadiums for all sports for the Olympics will be completed.

Click link for Shri Amit Shah full speech

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Sports and Youth Affairs Shri Anurag Singh Thakur and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel also spoke on this occasion. ShriThakur said, "This is a sporting facility at par with Olympic training centers in the world and this has been possible owing to the vision of Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi and the efforts of Shri. Amit Shah."

Shri Thakur further said that Government is taking utmost care to provide all facilities to sportspersons for competing at international levels so that they can focus completely on their training and on winning medals. “Annual budget for sports has now been increased to Rs3000 cr while it was only Rs1200 cr under UPA. Vision of Prime Minister is to promote sports culture in the country and make India a sporting power”, added Union Minister.

Notably, in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics 6 women athletes from Gujarat represented India after a gap of 61 years and training facilities like this one will only strengthen the identification and nurturing of sporting talent further.

*******

NB/OA

(Release ID: 1829306) Visitor Counter : 852