Sports City to come up near Bangalore

The Karnataka Olympic Association (KOA) today said it has initiated talks with the state government for the setting up of an international standard Sports City here.
"I met Youth Affairs and Sports K Abhayachandra Jain and initiated the talks of constructing an international standard Sports City nearly 80 kilometrs away from the city," KOA President K Govindraj told reporters here after Annual General Body Meeting.
Three land sites have been identified on Chikaballapur and Mysore roads and also near Kolar for setting up the proposed sports city. The city, which is planned to be built on a plot of forty to fifty acres land, would be built on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.

"We do not want the government to spend any money on the project, expect providing us with land," he said.
Govindraj said the proposed City would have state-of-the-art facilities and was planned to create a niche in world sports for the country.
"The sports city would also house world-class sports academies where young sportspersons will get best of the training from experts. In next three years athletes will have a big scope for getting wildcats training facilities near the city," Govindraj said.

He also announced that the state government's plans to improve facilities at the Kanteerava Stadium in the city.

Govindraj said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has assured separate allocations of funds for improving sports facilities in his supplementary budget presentation.
The KOA also requested Siddaramaiah to make provisions for holding State Olympic Games once in every two years mandatorily.
Housing Minister M H Ambareesh has assured housing plots to sportspersons who had represented the state or the country at higher levels of the games, he said.