CUTTACK 08-Aug-2013 272
Odisha Olympic Association (OOA) today signed a memorandum of understanding with Department of Sports & Youth Services (DSYS), Government of Odisha, for providing a hostel building to Sports Authority of India (SAI) Training Center at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.
According to the MoU, OOA will provide the entire dormitory building along with kitchen, dining hall and store room inside Barabati Stadium free of cost for 30 years to enable SAI expand its training centre, enrolling more players and adding four more disciplines (football, kabaddi, hockey and weightlifting) to the only one (athletics) available at present.
After renovation, the accommodation capacity of hostel building will be increased from 75 to 150 beds. SAI has agreed to enhance the total strength of the Cuttack centre to 250 trainees. SAI will select 150 players, while the State Government will provide 100 players. Male trainees will be accommodated in the Barabati Stadium, while their female counterparts will be put up in the near-by J N Indoor Stadium.
DSYS will bear the expenses of the renovation work, which will be executed by Odisha Infrastructure Development Corporation. DSYS will also pay Rs 10,000 per month to OOA towards electricity and water charges. The hostel building will be handed over after completion of renovation work in December this year.
Set up in the eighties, the Cuttack SAI Training Centre initially provided residential coaching facility to 75 sportspersons in athletics, basketball and football. But deteriorating condition of the hostel forced SAI close down facility for football and basketball. SAI also planned to shift the facility for athletics from Barabati Stadium to Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
However, with the signing of the MoU by OOA secretary Asirbad Behera and State Sports Director DV Swamy, the Cuttack Training Centre has received a new lease of life. OOA president Samir Dey, Sports Department Deputy Secretaries Ananta Kishore Jena, Sanatan Mohanty, Odisha Council of Sports consultant VVSN Rao and IDCO Chief General Manager Ratan Kumar Agarwal were present the signing ceremony of the MoU.
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PHOTO: State Sports Director DV Swamy (left) and OOA secretary Asirbad Behera (first from right) shake hands after signing the MoU in Cuttack on August 8, 2013.
