Anurag Thakur, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Information, and Broadcasting, inaugurated sports facilities at the SAI National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Hamirpur on Friday.
Badminton court mats with flooring, along with a boxing hall and judo hall, have been established and operationalized at NCOE Hamirpur, officials said. The National Centre of Excellence in Hamirpur has been established in March 2022 in cooperation with the Government of Himachal Pradesh in March 2022. Currently, for the first year, 91 athletes are training in six disciplines of athletics, badminton, boxing, judo, hockey, and wrestling on a non-residential basis.
The work of future expansion of NCOE is in progress which will see an international sporting arena and Olympic size swimming pool along with 300 bedded hostel facilities extended to talented athletes.
Anurag Thakur appreciated the efforts of SAI for the successful installation of courts in a short time.
“It took just 10 months for the completion of this SAI NCOE. I am happy with Dr Ambedkar Jayanti, we are opening up new badminton courts, a new lights system, wrestling and judo mats and more.
This was done in record time. More facilities will come for this NCOE. We all shall walk the path shown by Dr Ambedkar in our life and work hard for achieving our dreams,” he said.
“There will be a lot of talented athletes here at the NCOE and the training these athletes will receive here will catapult their career further in terms of skills and development. This has given much fillip and will give further fillip to the development of sports in Himachal Pradesh. We target the region to be the next big sports hub in India,” Thakur added.