Rijiju inaugurates 8 Khelo India State Centres of Excellence across country

Kiren Rijiju, the Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs on Tuesday virtually inaugurated 8 Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCEs) across India.

The 8 states include Mpur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Kerala, Telangana, Nagaland, Karnataka and Odisha.

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa was part of the virtual launch besides Arunachal Pradesh Sports Minister Mama Natung, Advisor, YAS, Nagaland, Er Zale Neikha, Mpur Sports Minister Letpao Haolip, Mizoram Sports Minister Robert Romawia Royte and Telangana Sports Minister Dr V Srinivas Goud.

Secretary (Sports) Ravi Mital was also present along with Sandip Pradhan, Director-General, Sports Authority of India.

"This is a very important day for sports in India and it is a very important beginning to develop sports culture and excellence in the country. The youth in India is looking for initiatives from the Govt of India and the State Governments. Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji has said sports has to be a way of life for every Indian and the Govt of India wants to create basic facilities for everyone. The Khelo India State Centres of Excellence are being started in addition to the National Centres of Excellence," Rijiju said in an official release.

Rijiju and Tusharkanti Behera, Minister, Sports and Youth Services jointly unveiled the virtual foundation stone at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar. The KISCE has a total area of 66 acres and the KISCE will focus on three disciplines: Hockey, Weightlifting and Athletics.

The Union Minister reiterated the vision is to see India in top 10 in the Los Angeles Olympics 2028.

"The Central and State govt has to work together and we will provide all necessary financial assistance so they develop with proper infrastructure and manpower, sports science, high-quality training and so on. We cannot be satisfied with only 1-2 medals, we have to be in top 10 in the 2028 Olympics," said Rijiju.

The Sports Ministry had identified sports facilities in these 8 states to be upgraded to the Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE). The centres identified are:

Nagaland- State Sports Academy, IG Stadium Kohima Mpur - Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, Imphal Arunachal Pradesh - Sangey Lhaden Sports Academy, Chimpu Itanagar Mizoram - Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Aizawl Odisha - Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar Telangana - Regional Sports School Hakimpet Karnataka - Sh. Jayaprakash Narayan National Youth Centre BangaloreKerala - GV Raja Sr. Sec. Sports School Thiruvananthapuram

With a vision to make India one of the top 10 countries in 2028 Olympics, the Khelo India State Centres of Excellence will ensure that athletes proficient in a certain sport can be given the world-class specialised training and these centres become the best facilities in the country to train athletes in the priority sport for which they have been earmarked.

The support to the centres will be in the form of infrastructure up-gradation, setting up of sports science centres and also a soft component in the form of quality coaches and sports science human resources like physiotherapists, strength & conditioning experts and so on.

The centres will also have high-performance Manager to ensure the quality of sports science input and performance management. The setting up of the KISCE will also help to broad-base talent identification since the states and UTs will also identify and develop talent in each sport for which funding is received.

( With inputs from ANI )