SHILLONG: The government of Meghalaya is all set to receive a bumper grant of Rs 3 billion from the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for the construction of new stadiums keeping the 2022 National Games in mind, IANS reports.
“For building stadiums, the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is funding the state Rs.3 billion. For building the games’ village, the fund has to be managed by the state government,” Meghalaya’s deputy CM, Prestone Tynsong was quoted as saying to IANS, after a cabinet meeting which was headed by CM Conrad Sangma, which had the state’s preparations for hosting the national games on its agenda.
“About 50-acre land would be utilised for creating stadiums for the national games at New Shillong Township while another land of about 70 acres would be utilized for building the games village,” Tynsong added.
He confirmed that the sports ministry of the state will appoint the CEO, chief architect and consultant for the competition by 15 November this year. With this process completed, the government expressed confidence over fulfilling all infrastructure requirements by 2022.
Meghalaya can also expect financial and technical support from private players such as Nita Ambani, founder-chairperson of Reliance Foundation who had recently shown interest in collaborating with the state government for providing all the infrastructure.
“We would love to talk to the government and help in every way possible for the national games, Ambani said during a tournament in Shillong.
Bollywood actor John Abraham has also expressed his desire to support the tournament courtesy a new football training academy which will have the government’s backing. The academy is expected to be ready by 2022 as well under the actor’s football club, NorthEast United FC’s name.
Meghalaya’s previous hosting experience of sporting events was the 2016 South Asian Games with neighbouring state Assam. It will be the third northeastern state followed by Manipur and Assam to host the National Games.
Over 14,000 athletes and officials are expected to visit the state during the Games.
