KOCHI: The Kerala State Sports Council’s plans to revamp the ground of Government High School, Panampilly Nagar, with a holistic approach by setting up a sports complex with a football field and an athletics track has received a major fillip with the government according administration sanction of Rs 11.07 crore for the project. The project, which aims to ensure high-quality infrastructure for sporting talents by providing a stadium of international standards, was in cold storage for several years.
“The construction of the project will begin from January onwards, with the government having given the administrative sanction.The constructions would begin after renovating the school campus. Rs 1.49 crore has been set aside especially for the renovation, which mainly includes work on the sports hostel,” said Benny Behanan MLA. Indoor volleyball court, indoor basketball court, roofing for volleyball and basketball courts, swimming pool, change rooms, 200 m synthetic athletic track, roller-skating track and fencing around the track are the major facilities planned as part of the project.
The major chunk of the project cost is reserved for the roofing of volleyball and basketball courts, swimming pool and 200-m synthetic athletic track. While Rs 2.86 crore has been reserved for roofing of two courts, Rs 2.1 crore has been allocated for swimming pool. For the synthetic track, the project cost would be 2.04 crore. An amount of Rs 32.07 lakh is meant for the indoor volleyball court, 31.2 lakh for indoor basketball court, Rs 39.18 lakh for change rooms, Rs 9.7 lakh for the fencing and Rs 52.65 lakh for the roller-skating track.
Components of Sports Complex
The proposed project would be completed in two phases within a period of two-and-a-half years. The construction of swimming pool and 200-m synthetic track would be started in the second phase only.
“It was based on the decision of a Special Working Group meeting that the government gave the green signal. The fund for the project would be released component-wise only as it should not be kept in banks. The school, in future, will be a ‘Facebook’ of the sports and we are trying hard to achieve the goal,” MLA said.