Question : CENTRES OF SAI

:

(a) the places where the centres of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) are functioning in the country;

(b) the sports facilities available at these centres; and

(c) the steps being taken to make them useful?

Answer given by the minister

THE MINISTER OF YOUTH AFFAIRS AND SPORTS (SHRI SUNIL DUTT)

(a) to (c) The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has 6 Regional Centres at Bangalore, Gandhinagar, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Imphal & 4 sub-centres at Guwahati, Hazaribagh, Nagercoil and Lucknow.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI), at present, is implementing the following Sports Promotional Schemes in the entire country to identify talent in various sports disciplines in the age group of 8-25 years so as to train them to excel at National and International level:-

(1)	83 Schools plus 16 adopted Akharas under National Sports Talent Contest (NSTC) Scheme (8-14 Years)

(2) 08 Army Boys Sports Company(ABSC) (8-14 Years)

(3) 17 Special Area Games (SAG) (14-21 Years)

(4) 58 SAI Training Centre (STC) (14-21 Years)

(5) 08 Centre of Excellence (COX) (17-25 Years)



Under the above SAI Schemes, talented sportspersons in the age group ranging from 8-25 years in 28 sports disciplines are selected by adopting scheme specific selection criteria and admitted in the SAI Centres for imparting regular sports training. During the year 2003-04 total 10,046 talented sportspersons (7292 males and 2754 females) were trained in the 190 SAI Centres with the help of sports infrastructure available in each centre. During the current year 10 ABSCs have been sanctioned.

In these centres, training facilities like playgrounds, gymnasiums, swimming pools, fitness centres, medical facilities, coaching and scientific back up facilities relevant to sports disciplines allotted to them, are provided.

SAI, as a part of on-going process is also upgrading its training infrastructure facilities in its centres.