TURA:
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma inaugurated a football stadium which has the seating capacity of 9500 at the PA Sangma Sports Complex at Tura, West Garo Hills, on December 16.
The stadium invokes a great historical significance as it witnessed Tura Football League and Subroto Cup since its inception in the year 2006.
The upgradation of this stadium has been a mammoth undertaking by the government. The stadium is a technological marvel, being the country’s largest pre-engineered composite football stadium with a sizeable seating capacity of 9500. The beautiful stadium is a part of an equally magnificent Sports Complex built at a cost of Rs.127.7 crore which is also nearing it’s completion. The football stadium and the two indoor stadiums are built over a combined area of over 17,000 sqms. The indoor stadiums with gymnasium, swimming pool, table tennis hall, squash hall and badminton hall will be ready for inauguration by December 2023.
The Department of Sports and Youth Affairs in its quest to strengthen the sports eco-system and engage the youth of the sate, formulated the Sports Policy in 2019. Extensive efforts have been made to make world-class sports facilities available to the youth and athletes of the region; with such efforts never been initiated earlier in the history of Meghalaya. 318 grassroot sporting infrastructures are being developed across the state along with large scale state-of-the-art sports infrastructure across the state. Additional large infrastructures will also be ready in the next few months with JN Stadium (Polo Grounds Shillong) being upgraded, Wahiajer Stadium and Indoor Stadium in Jongksha entering their concluding stages.
The government has launched a talent identification programme for athletes. The programme aims to identify talented athletes at a young and impressionable age and then hone their skills through curated training programmes. In the first phase of the programme, 4,600 children in the age groups of 10-18 were tested on international standards for their athletic abilities. The initial findings are very encouraging and dozens of kids whose athletic abilities are at par and even better than international benchmarks have been identified. Raksan Sangma, a 17-year-old boy from South West Garo Hills clocked 2.84 seconds in the 20-metersprint against the international benchmark of 2.99 seconds.
Cash Award Scheme for sports achievers have been launched with about Rs.3.14 crore benefitting nearly 3000 athletes.
Hosting events is also a big objective to ensure that athletes gain exposure. This has been a primary focus of the Department of Sports and Youth Affairs.
Meghalaya also witnessed a very successful North-East Olympic games. Athletes from around the north east states came up to say that the facilities were of international standard, technical staffs and coaches lauded the organiser and to add feather to the cap Meghalaya achieved record medal tally.
In the inauguration programme, revealing of bust and paying homage to late PA Sangma was also carried out. An exhibition football match between the Meghalaya State Team and North East United Football Club set the tone rolling. A grand cultural event with local bands and freestyle artists performed much to the delight of the spectators. The event concluded with a spectacular drone show and glittering fireworks.
Minister of Health and Family Welfare James Sangma also attended the programme.