The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal has said that Sports infrastructure plays a crucial role in broad-basing of sports and promoting excellence in Sports. Sports infrastructure of international standards is available in the country and is augmented/upgraded on a continuing basis. Inadequacies in terms of high performance centres, modern equipment, sports science and sports medicine facilities etc. are also identified for being addressed.
He said, for promoting sports and sports infrastructure at grass-roots level, the Department of Sports is implementing various schemes such as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan (RGKA) for creating/developing sports infrastructure at block level and organising sports competitions at block, district, state and national levels and Urban Sports Infrastructure Scheme (USIS) for creating/ developing sports infrastructure such as synthetic athletic track, hockey astro-turf, and multi-purpose indoor hall.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today the Minister said, Although no target for gold medals to be won at Rio Olympics 2016 has been fixed, preparations/training of identified athletes for Rio Olympics are going on with the aim of winning maximum number of medals in the forthcoming Olympic Games.
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AD/ASB
(Release ID :136716)