‘India’s largest 40,000 capacity football stadium to be built at Mawkhanu by 2028’
Shillong, Jan 23: Since 2018, the NPP-led MDA government has spent over ₹1,000 crore on sports infrastructure in the state,” chief minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters here on Wednesday.
He said ₹2 crore of total grant value was provided to state sports associations each year.
A total of over ₹50 crore was spent each year on sports events, including legacy infrastructure, besides collectively disbursed as cash incentives over ₹8 crore, he said.
Over 300 sport infrastructure facilities are being created across the state during the period.
Since 2022, 10 national and international events have been hosted by the state and over 2500 got employment through such events every year.
Referring to the previous years before MDA govt took over, the CM said less than ₹100 crore was sanctioned for sports infrastructure projects and state sports associations received negligible grants.
“There were no talent identification/training programmes funded by the government,” he said while adding that whereas at present, there was over 24,500 talent ID program participation.
According to him, the one international event that took place in the state was the South Asian Games in 2016.
Further, the CM informed that the government is coming up with a 40,000 capacity football stadium at the cost of over ₹400 crore at Mawkhanu by 2028. The football stadium will be the largest in the country.
“We will also come up with the Mawdiangdiang sports complex, which will have the aquatics complex and lawn tennis complex (to be constructed at ₹150 crore),” he said.
Also, the CM informed that over ₹6 crore is being disbursed to 3500 plus athletes and coaches under the Cash Awards Scheme and over ₹2.5 crore was disbursed to nearly 350 athletes under the Sports Scholarship Scheme.
