KOCHI: Being a National Games venue has its own benefits. Fund for a multi-crore renovation is just one among them.
Equally significant and a little less apparent spin-off is the development scope the Games will kick wide open for the venues after the spectacle is over. The Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi is one such venue, which is poised to make a giant leap by turning its National Games host role into a spring board for development. Located at Kadavanthra, the stadium will host table tennis and badminton events of the Games between February 1 and February 13.
As a result, the 21-year-old stadium has received an `8.5 crore facelift, complete with a fully air-conditioned interior, acoustic insulation and improved electrical, lighting and firefighting facilities.
Having embraced these infrastructural upgrades, the Regional Sports Centre — the principal management that owns the indoor stadium — is hoping to ride on the popularity of the 35th National Games to derive mileage for its future sports development programmes.
Except badminton, its contribution is not proportionate to its circulated fame. Well, after the National Games, the RSC management says that is going to change.
“We are going to pursue a sustained development programme in each and every sport we promote here. Sponsorship has been our problem, but the National Games is going fix that for us,” said Manohar Prabhu, former secretary and executive committee member of RSC.
According to him a high-profile team from abroad is expected to visit RSC on Thursday to inspect the facilities available at the indoor stadium as part of their search for a suitable venue for the upcoming world masters’ badminton tournament.If they are convinced, RSC would soon host its first international tournament, Manohar said.
“We have also submitted a project report to the Sports Authority of India seeking to designate RSC as a training venue for the national badminton camp. If that is approved, players like Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu will be flying down to Kochi instead of Hyderabad for their practice,” he said.