Ahmedabad: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that India has recently submitted a bid to host the Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad and the country is very likely to get permission in a very short time.
“We have submitted a bid for hosting the Commonwealth Games and there is a strong possibility that we will get permission for the Commonwealth Games to be hosted in Ahmedabad in a very short time,” Shah said during the inauguration of the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad.
He also said that the Indian government is making efforts to host the 2036 Olympic Games in Ahmedabad and revealed that 13 international events will be held in the city till 2036.
“The Indian government is making all efforts to ensure that in 2036 the Olympic Games are held here in Ahmedabad. Till 2036, 13 international events will be held in Ahmedabad as a result of which the city will become the centre for sports not only for Gujarat but for entire Asia. Such preparations are being made,” Shah said in the presence of Union youth and sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel and the state’s home minister Harsh Sanghavi.
Shah said the 21-acre land had been lying vacant since 1960 with a green belt built on it and revealed his personal connection to the area. “In 1978, when I shifted from my home town to Ahmedabad, I lived in this Naranpura ward and have played many inter-society matches here,” Shah said. He said there was encroachment on the land parcel and it could not develop as a sports complex. He said in 2019 he approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the 21-acre plot located 400 metres from his residence. “I told him that there is a plot that is ideal for a sports complex, so if you give permission then a sports complex can be developed. He told me that we will meet for this after some time. Then one day he called me and said a sports complex can surely be built here, but it should be world class level,” Shah said.
{{/usCountry}}Shah said the 21-acre land had been lying vacant since 1960 with a green belt built on it and revealed his personal connection to the area. “In 1978, when I shifted from my home town to Ahmedabad, I lived in this Naranpura ward and have played many inter-society matches here,” Shah said. He said there was encroachment on the land parcel and it could not develop as a sports complex. He said in 2019 he approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the 21-acre plot located 400 metres from his residence. “I told him that there is a plot that is ideal for a sports complex, so if you give permission then a sports complex can be developed. He told me that we will meet for this after some time. Then one day he called me and said a sports complex can surely be built here, but it should be world class level,” Shah said.
{{/usCountry}}“I have been in public life for a long time now. I have seen many sports facilities. When this complex was being built, I have come here many times. I have seen videos of its many stages of development. But I am not at all hesitant to say that the Veer Savarkar Complex is in its own the largest in India and the most modern sports complex in the world,” Shah said.
He said under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership the country should not think of being number two, as Modi has set a target that by 2047 India should strive to achieve the number one position in every sector. He said when talking about every sector, sports is the soul of the country, noting that the first games in the world were held in India and the country with the highest youth population cannot be left behind. Shah said Modi has not only made policies but also ensured that sports infrastructure should be world class, training of athletes should be world class, selection of athletes should be transparent and those performing well should get a chance to represent India.
Shah said the complex is named after great freedom fighter Veer Savarkar and told the gathering that many swimmers present may not know about one of Savarkar’s remarkable feats. “When the British had captured him and were bringing him to India, then at a port near France called Marseille Port he escaped from the ship while bound in chains in his hands and legs. Listen carefully – he was bound in chains and he swam to France to escape from the British. But unfortunately, he was caught and brought to India,”he said. He said in the entire freedom struggle of India, Savarkar was one person who was given life imprisonment twice in one life and was sentenced to imprisonment for 120 years. “When he was sent to Andaman Nicobar for the Kala Paani punishment, when one British jailer told him that ‘Veer Savarkar you will not go out of here now as you have been sentenced for 120 years’. To this he replied that the British will not survive for this long as the Indians will drive them away,” Shah said.
Shah said the British tried to tie the 1857 events as a revolt in the education system but Veer Savarkar changed it for the first time to the first battle for independence and put India’s thoughts before the world. Savarkar had to tolerate a lot, Shah said while paying his respects to Veer Savarkar.
“The athletes who will come here for training and for playing here will not have the ambition to get a medal for themselves but to win at international levels and bring medals for Mother India,” Shah said.
“This is the most modern stadium in the world. These are not my words. Two international events took place here a few days ago, the leaders of the events said that this is the most advanced sports stadium in the world,” Shah said.
“Ahmedabad is emerging as the sports capital of the country. It houses the world’s largest cricket stadium – Narendra Modi cricket stadium, near which a sports complex dedicated to the great Sardar Patel is being built. The Veer Savarkar sports complex has been opened today. Many such facilities are being built here,” he added.
The ₹825-crore Veer Savarkar sports complex spans 20 acres in the Naranpura area of Ahmedabad and has been divided into four blocks. Block A houses an aquatic stadium with a capacity of 1,750 spectators and includes an Olympic-level swimming pool along with facilities for artistic swimming, water polo and diving. Block B serves as a centre for sports excellence with training facilities for basketball, volleyball, taekwondo and wushu, and provides accommodation for 300 athletes. The third block features an indoor multi-sports arena with 5,200 seating capacity for badminton, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, weightlifting, boxing, fencing, judo and wrestling. Block D operates as a community sports centre offering facilities for table tennis, badminton, indoor shooting, snooker, squash, volleyball, tennis, basketball and includes a fitness centre.
“Many times, people from the Congress say that even Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, used to encourage sports…The country’s budget for sports was ₹1,643 crore in 2014-15 and was raised by PM Modi to ₹5,300 crore for our athletes. This scale is to show how sports will advance in our country through new sports infrastructure, Khelo India centres, approved academies, Fit India,” Shah said.
He said a new sports policy was introduced in 2025 with the aim of making India a top sporting nation. He said the policy has four objectives - maintaining India’s position at the top in world sports, driving economic development through sports, promoting social welfare, and integrating sports with education. Shah said as a result, from post independence to 2012 the country had got 20 medals in Olympics where as in the last eight years India has got 15 medals. In para-Olympics, the country got 8 medals earlier and now has got 52, he said.
“In the entire country there is an atmosphere of sports today. In this sports complex and at the other facilities in Ahmedabad, World Police and Fire Games will be held in 2029,” Shah said.
Gujarat home minister Harsh Sanghavi said the complex took thirty months to complete and Union home minister Shah conducted 16 review meetings to monitor its progress. Before the inauguration ceremony, two events had already been held at the facility - a Commonwealth Weight Lifting Tournament and a national level sports competition. The Asian Aquatic Championship will be held from September 28 with 1200 athletes from several countries participating, Sanghavi said.
Union sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya described the inauguration as an important event, calling it India’s largest sports complex. He said under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership the country is changing and moving forward with a new progressive and prosperous Bharat emerging. He said when asked how the sports sector should develop in this new India, PM Modi stated that when India celebrates 100 years of Independence, the country should be among the top 5 sporting nations in the world. To achieve this goal, significant development has taken place over the last 11 years through initiatives like Khelo India and Fit India, creating a new ecosystem in the country. He said reforms have been carried out through new sports policy and sports governance to strengthen the ecosystem, develop world class infrastructure, provide women representation in sports federations, and make sports sector dispute resolution easier.
Chief minister Bhupendra Patel said the state’s sports budget has increased substantially to ₹486 crore at present, resulting in 23 district level sporting facilities becoming operational across 21 districts of the state. He said the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave is being developed in about 233 hectares near the world’s largest Narendra Modi cricket stadium. A para-athletic centre is also being developed for Divyang athletes, he said.
Earlier in the day, Shah attended the Fifth Akhil Bhartiya Rajbhasha Sammelan in Gandhinagar as the chief guest on the occasion of Hindi Diwas 2025. He announced the launch of the Saarthi Translation System that will facilitate easy translation from Hindi to all major Indian languages and said the Hindi Shabdsindhu dictionary, which began with 51,000 words, now contains over 700,000 words and will become the world’s largest dictionary by 2029.
He said there was no conflict between Hindi and other Indian languages and emphasised that it should not just serve as a spoken tongue but must also become a language of science, technology, the judiciary, and police.
Shah said Indians must preserve their languages and make them “immortal”, urging parents to speak to children in their mother tongue.
“There is no conflict between Hindi and other Indian languages. Learned men like Dayanand Saraswati, Mahatma Gandhi, KM Munshi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and many others accepted Hindi and promoted it. Gujarat, where Gujarati and Hindi have coexisted, is an excellent example of the development of both languages,” he said.