Nagpur: Nagpur Municipal Corporation will undertake comprehensive development of 200 sports grounds in the city. A meeting of representatives of various sports associations was held at NMC’s Standing Committee Hall on Monday to discuss the objective of making fully equipped sports grounds available to citizens. The meeting was presided over by Mayor Neeta Thakre.Thakre expressed the intention to carry out development of grounds in the city as per the suggestions of the concerned sports associations. On the occasion, Standing Committee Chairperson Shivani Dani-Wakhare, ruling party leader Narendra Borkar, NMC Commissioner Dr Vipin Itankar, former MLA Sandeep Joshi, Sports Committee Chairperson Darshani Dhawad, corporators Shrikant Agalave and Ritesh Gavande, Sports Officer Dr Piyush Ambulkar, Executive Engineer Sunil Gajbhiye, Amol Chaurapgar of the Tree Conservation Committee, Sports Inspector Ujjwala Charde, as well as presidents, secretaries and representatives of various sports associations, were present.The officials discussed in detail the planning required for development of the grounds, estimates, essential infrastructure for various sports and the future development blueprint. Mayor Thakre said the existing sports grounds in the city will be developed in a state-of-the-art manner, and quality sports facilities will be made available for boys and girls. Necessary facilities will be developed according to the needs of indoor and outdoor sports. She appealed to sports associations to submit their suggestions regarding which sports facilities can be developed at each ground, considering the capacity of each ground, available space and the concerned zone.On this occasion, former MLA Sandeep Joshi suggested that along with creating sports grounds, the NMC should ensure a sports policy. Likewise, ruling party leader Narendra Borkar clarified that decisions would be taken by consensus while developing sports grounds for citizens. Commissioner Itankar also clarified that while developing grounds, consideration would be given to developing sports grounds in a multipurpose format.Facilities required for various sports, including wrestling, basketball, taekwondo, athletics, archery, cycling, pickleball, badminton, kabaddi, table tennis, volleyball, swimming, boxing and atyapatya, will be created. The representatives of sports associations suggested that grounds should be provided with high-quality lighting arrangements, seating arrangements for spectators, toilets, changing rooms, parking, CCTV systems, digital screens and other facilities. They also suggested that the grounds should be developed in a multipurpose format so that three to four sports can be played on the same ground.
