Cabinet minister, mayor review projects for upgrading sports facilities in Ludhiana

Cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu and mayor Balkar Sandhu reviewed projects under the Smart City Mission for upgrading sports infrastructure in the city at the mayor’s camp office on Saturday.

Apart from the municipal corporation (MC) officials including MC commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal, officials of the district sports department also participated in the meeting.

The civic body is working to establish a sports park on a 32-acre land in Jainpur village, an all-weather swimming pool near Rakh Bagh and upgrade the existing sports infrastructure including Shastri hall for badminton, athletic track Guru Nanak Stadium, cycling velodrome and hockey ground in PAU among other projects. It is said that the tenders for construction of the sports park will be floated in January next year.

Ashu said that the park will have playgrounds for cricket, football, hockey, lawn tennis, swimming pool, outdoor archery ground, 50m indoor shooting range, volleyball, badminton and table tennis courts etc, along with a 3.5-km long and 15-feet wide cycling as well as a pedestrian track. Besides, this sports park would also have a club area for sportspersons with refreshment lounge, children zone, yoga zone. A new table tennis court is coming up near Rakh Bagh, whose architectural layout has been prepared. The two open basketball courts at Ludhiana Basketball Academy will soon be made indoors.

Ashu said, “The officials have been told to complete the projects within the set deadline and action will be taken against any kind of delay. Further, we have also invited different sports associations to know their suggestions/objections regarding the ongoing projects. Another meeting will be held next week in this regard.”

Ashu said that the public can also submit their suggestions with the civic body and the officials will deliberate upon the same.

With the 15th Finance Commission allocating Rs 26 crores under the National Clean Air Program for Ludhiana MC, the minister and mayor also briefly deliberated upon what steps can be taken to improve air quality in the city with PPCB superintending engineer, Sandeep Behl. It is expected that a detailed meeting will be held in the coming few days and councillors will also be involved in the project.