BHUBANESWAR: The state government today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Pullela Gopichand Foundation to set up a world class badminton academy in Odisha.
Pullela Gopichand, the chief national coach of the Indian badminton team and secretary in the sports department Vishal Dev signed the MoU in the presence of chief minister in the state secretariat here. The foundation will provide technical support and overall development of badminton in Odisha.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said the state aspires to win Olympic medals in sports and there is no better than Gopichand to help Odisha realising this dream. Gopichand has trained several national and international badminton players who have brought laurels to the country, he said and added that the world-class badminton training facility will help groom world class champions from the state.
The state government will provide all possible support to Gopichand and his foundation, he added.
Recalling the success of Asian Athletics Championships (AAC), the chief minister said it was organised in a period of 90 days where 42 countries and more than 1000 sports persons participated. The event
demonstrated the leadership ability of the state and emergence of Bhubanswar as the sports capital of the
country, he said.
Stating that he is immensely pleased to see the kind of support the state government is providing to sports, Gopichand said the success of AAC, sponsorship of the Indian Hockey team and establishment of
high-performance training centres clearly underlies that Odisha is a great state and a has a visionary government. The government is making all efforts to bring Odisha in the global sporting map, he said.
The chief minister also released the Asian Athletics Championship Coffee Table book titled, 'Challenge to Opportunity' on the occasion.
Minister for panchayatiraj Pradeep Maharathy, minister for women and child development Prafulla Samal, minister for health and family welfare Pratap Jena, minister for scheduled tribes and scheduled castes development Ramesh Chandra Majhi, minister for tourism and culture Ashok Panda and minister of state for sports and youth affairs Chandra Sarathi Behera, development commissioner R Balakrishnan and senior officials were present.