GUWAHATI: Assam’s financial capital Guwahati will play host to the third edition of Khelo India Youth Games in January next, state chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said while chairing the first high-powered review meeting here Thursday.
Sonowal said the state machinery, including sports bodies, should make the best innovation for successfully organising the games in the city.
He said Khelo India Youth Games is a brain child of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which is organised to give opportunity to the budding players and identify the best talents in the sporting arena and every effort should be made to provide state of the art sporting facilities to 9,000 athletes who will be converging on Guwahati from all across the country.
Sonowal asked Subhash Basumatary, director at Sports Authority of India, Assam, to make a complete assessment of all the sports venues, including the available infrastructure, and take up the refurbishing work at the earliest, local media reported.
Sonowal also said all the replacement and repair work of all the major infrastructure should be taken up immediately and all the venues should be made innovatively ready for the Youth Games.
He also asked the concerned officials to constitute a high-level group to look after different aspects of organising the games.
Sonowal urged the Sports Department to devote special care to transportation, immediate medical care and accommodation for the players and other support staff.
Since security of the players is of paramount importance, Sonowal asked Additional Director General of Police Harmeet Kaur and Mukesh Agarwala to make fool proof security arrangement for the games.
He also maintained that no lapses should be allowed in organising the games.
Khelo India Youth Games will feature sports disciplines like archery, basketball, badminton, boxing, football, gymnastics, hockey, judo, kabbadi, khokho, shooting, swimming, table tennis, lawn tennis, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling.
