• Source:JND
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Odisha has made huge strides in building world-class sports infrastructure in the last decade. The state government has invested heavily in giving the best-in-class sports infrastructure to the grassroots level in each sports discipline.

After setting the benchmark in hosting the Men's Hockey World Cup 2023 in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, the state is aspiring to become the sporting hub of the country with a focus on football, badminton, swimming, and athletics among others.

In December, Odisha is set to inaugurate India's first-ever Indoor Athletics Centre in Bhubaneswar boasting a 200m athletics track with a seating gallery for 2,000 spectators. It will be South Asia's largest indoor stadium with 80m & 20m running tracks and areas for pole vault, shot put, long and high jump, and weight training centre among others. The facility also hosts 56 rooms for the accommodation of players.

Pictures of the Indoor Athletics Centre in Bhubaneswar.

Odisha's government is not restricting them by building the sports infrastructure but also focusing on athlete's requirements as well.

The Kalinga Stadium Sports Complex in Bhubaneswar boasts diverse sports infrastructure, the upcoming Sports Science Centre will cater to the rehab and recovery of athletes across disciplines with all the top-class machinery from different parts of the world. The centre is fully functional and will be inaugurated soon for the players.

A facility at Sports Science Centre in Kalinga Sports Complex.

VK Pandian, the Chairman of 5T (Transparency, Technology, Teamwork, Time and Transformation) Initiative explained the transformation of Odisha's sporting facilities.

“It’s a continuous transformation. I don’t think it will come to an end until India gets a lot of gold medals in the Olympics. A scientific study was done and we identified the core areas where we can do well. We identified areas where we can get Asian medals and where, if we invest, we will get Olympic medals in 8-12 years. By getting sponsors, giving the athletes infrastructure, creating an ecosystem, giving them freedom, hopefully we should get the results,” said Pandian.

Pandian and his team are key to implementing the various projects in Odisha, bringing the State to the forefront in many areas including sports.

“The CM is passionate about sports. He once said, ‘If the Indian national flag goes up on the Olympic podium, the 140 crore people will walk one inch taller, at least for that day’. It is an unexplainable feeling one gets out of sports, and our CM wanted Odisha to contribute in this expression of youth part to the world,” said Pandian.

"It's a mix of passion the state shares and a scientific study of potential areas. Football has a huge crowd here, so we identified our core areas where we can do well. We identified which places we can get Asian medals and where if we invest, we will get Olympic medals in 8-12 years. You combine both, get sponsors, give them infrastructure, create an ecosystem, give them freedom, and hopefully, we should get results," he added.

Odisha's upcoming sports infrastructure

The latest addition to Odisha's sporting arsenal is the AIFF-FIFA Talent Academy which was inaugurated by legendary Arsene Wenger on November 21. Apart from that, the Badminton High Performance Centre is under construction at Kalinga Sports Complex. The facility will feature eight badminton courts with 500 seating capacity, cafeteria, guest rooms and gymnasium.

An aerial view of FIFA-AIFF Talent Academy in Bhubaneswar.

Odisha's sports budget

To fulfill its aspirations, Odisha has spent manifold in sports and allocated Rs 1,217 crore in 2023-24 from its Rs 2,30,000 crore annual budget. Rs.1044 crore was provided for the development and management of sports and other sports infrastructure. The amount was 266 crore for the year 2019-20 and in 2000-01 it was only four crore of the annual state budget.