Shillong, April 19: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Wednesday inspected the ongoing renovation, upgradation and expansion of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at Polo in Shillong.
The renovated stadium would include football ground with natural grass turf and also a state of the art facility for hosting track and field events. Laying emphasis on the quality of the construction, the Chief Minister informed that highest quality standards are being maintained and once ready will be fit to host international sporting events.
“The entire arrangements and the way the work is going on, we are going to meet the FIFA standards and this particular stadium and the football field will be at par to host any international games in the future”, he said.
“Apart from this, the stadium will have full facilities for athletics and the quality that is being maintained here for the track and field is also top of the line”, he added.
According to the Chief Minister the renovated stadium will have a seating capacity of close to 30,000 and will be completed by the month of December this year.Adjacent to the Football Stadium, a multipurpose indoor stadium is also being constructed.
The Chief Minister informed that it will be the largest multipurpose indoor stadium in the Northeastern region. The indoor stadium will have facilities for different disciplines such as basketball, squash, badminton, table tennis, volleyball, etc.
Expressing his happiness at the progress of the work, the Chief Minister was optimistic that once the state of the art facilities are completed it will provide an opportunity for the youth of the State to excel in the respective field and sporting disciplines.
During his visit, the Chief Minister also inspected the football field located at first ground Polo. Necessary upgradation and expansion is being carried out to improve the ground with laying of an artificial turf and construction of new stands.
Stating that the youth of the State are passionate about football, the Chief Minister said that the Government is in the process to identify local practice grounds across the State and take steps to upgrade and improve the selected grounds for the benefit of football lovers.
“The Government has decided that we are going to take up different locality fields and football grounds in all parts of the State where our youth normally play football and in collaboration with the community and the local leaders we would want to upgrade these grounds with better facilities”.
“We are already surveying Shillong city and we have identified five locations where we can potentially lay these astro turfs. With this intervention we are expecting that a large number of astro turf football grounds will come up, where our youth can practise, have matches. That will be one of the steps towards ensuring that we are able to bring out the talent and give the opportunity for the youth who are passionate about football”, he said.
The ongoing construction of an Integrated Hospitality and Sports Complex at JN Stadium is at the cost of 125 cr, while upgradation of JN Sports Complex Phase I is at the cost of 34.75 cr, while upgradation of Phase II is 18.2 cr and upgradation of SSA ground at 14.81 cr.
The integrated sports complex will comprise of 700-seater Multi Sports Hall, Convention Hall that can house 12 badminton courts, independent Banquet hall with dedicated kitchen facility, 200 seater Basketball/Futsal Indoor Sports Hall, Indoor Sports Hall for Squash (2Nos.) and Table tennis (10Nos.), 10 M and 25 M Shooting range.
