MUMBAI: The Indian OIympic Association (IOA) has submitted a formal bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 2032 Olympic Games and is set to approach the central government for support, Press Trust of India reports.
IOA President Narinder Batra told IOC chief Thomas Bach earlier this year that India would consider bidding for the 2032 Games. Bach had welcomed the move. Following that, IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta had a meeting with the three-member bid committee of the IOC headed by Olympics Games associate director Jacqueline Barrett, during the body’s board meeting in Tokyo earlier this month.
“We are dead serious about this bid for the 2032 Olympics. So, we have already submitted to the IOC the letter expressing our interest in hosting 2032 Olympic Games. I had a meeting with the Bid Committee of the IOC. They welcomed the move and said that India should have hosted an Olympic Games much earlier,” Mehta was quoted as saying to PTI.
New Delhi and Mumbai are the top two venues in the minds of the IOA top brass but other cities are also not ruled out. This is the first time that the IOA has officially submitted its expression of interest to host an Olympic Games to the IOC.
“At the first stage, a country expresses its interest to bid for the Olympics and at a later stage the proposed host city or cities is mentioned in the bid. India has not bid or expressed interest to host Olympic Games earlier,” he added.
The bid process for the 2032 Olympics will start in 2022 and a host city will be announced in 2025. India will face competition from Asian Games 2018 hosts Indonesia, China’s Shanghai, Australia’s Brisbane, North and South Korea as well as Germany. The IOA has started planning for the bidding process and the upcoming General Body Meeting on 22 December is expected to pass a resolution to formally approach the government to back its plan.
“We are going to approach the government to back the bid after our GBM passes a resolution to that effect. The bidding process will start in 2022 but before that we have to get the nod from the central government that it will back the bid,” Mehta said.
“We have to get the letter of backing from the central government, from the state government where the proposed venue is located and even from the Leader of the Opposition Party.
“We also have to get a lot of guarantees from various government agencies. But all these will start only if the government says it will back such a bid,” he signed off.
