SAI to build a multipurpose hall

ahmedabad: in keeping with the promises that he made at the start of his tenure a year ago, regional director, sports authority of india (sai), b s ranawat informed that a much-needed multipurpose hall would be coming up in the near future at the sprawling sports complex, which was set up a decade ago in gandhinagar to promote and polish sporting talents."we have already received rs. 2 crore for the project from headquarters and the ball is now in the cpwd's court to commence construction," said ranawat, adding, "to speed up things, we have requested them to hire a private architect so that they can conduct the survey of the site and give us estimates and layout of the hall." the multi-purpose hall would fill a huge void, not only at gandhinagar, but also in ahmedabad which suffers from an appalling lack of indoor sports halls. the sports complex now has an astro-turf hockey field, a synthetic track and an olympic-size swimming pool. it is indeed sad to see gymnastics apparatus like the balancing beam, pommel horse and vaulting bar all kept in the open for students to use them in the garden! ranawat said that once the work starts on this rs 3 crore-hall, the rest of the money would arrive. "we would like to conduct badminton, table tennis, judo, wrestling and boxing events in the hall on a day-to-day basis and also have a small gymnasium in one side of it. seeing the response each of these disciplines attract, we will be having discussions with the state government on whether they should be added to ones already being conducted here," he said. ranawat also informed that as the players were complaining of pain in their legs, a grass hockey field has been developed and an additional basketball court is almost 80 percent over. besides, the hostel building, administrative wing and swimming pool have been renovated and a separate changing room for ladies has been built.