Delhi's high rentals, no accommodation keeps India's pros away

NEW DELHI: The 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games may have left behind a legacy of high-end stadiums, but the high cost of living in the Capital is discouraging federations. The absence of hostel facilities within the stadium complex — they were done away with during the up-gradations for the CWG — adds to the problem.
What bothers the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation, for instance, is that despite the stadiums, the sport hasn't been allotted a permanent venue in the Capital.The boxers have to rely on Karnail Singh Stadium owned by Indian Railways to train during their layover. "We don't have a stadium to call our own, the Talkatora Indoor stadium falls under NDMC and not SAI. We are grateful to Railways to allow us to train there," says Brig PK Muralidharan Raja, secretary general, IABF.
Two years since the CWG, the focus has been on'Come and Play' as the stadiums remain to be underutilized by competitive athletes. "We have requested the ministry a number of times to give us a stadium that has accommodation facilities so we can use it for national camps on permanent basis. People can come and not just learn boxing but also watch some high-profile pugilists box. There are so many updated facilities, give them to us and we will utilise them," says Raja.
What discourages the IABF and other federations is the lack of hostel facilities in the stadiums that were present before the CWG Games. They instead prefer centres like Bangalore and Pune which offer accommodation within the campus.
Dronacharya Awardee and former Indian hockey coach Harendra Singh tells us why. "Delhi's National Stadium is a great venue but problem it does not have residential facilities. It's okay if you work with players for a day or two there, but it's not possible on a long-term basis. And you can't have national camps for a month by putting up the players in hotels," Harendra says.
Some federations including the Table Tennis Federation of India would prefer to host more tournaments in Delhi if the stadiums can be rented out at an affordable price along with accommodation.
In addition, National Sports Federations (NSF) have also continuously been asking for office space within the stadiums to save on the rent. "Let the federation office be in the same stadium where the sport is played," says Raj Singh, secretary general, Wrestling Federation of India. "We pay Rs 1.20 lakhs per month for the commercial space in Palika Place (Panchkuian Road). How long can we afford it?" he asks.
At the moment, six NSFs — athletics, wrestling, boxing, table tennis, archery and basketball — are housed in the makeshift Palika Place, after they were moved out from the JNS during the CWG up-gradation. "Take rent from us and let us set up our office in any stadium," Raja says.
But, it appears their pleas will fall on deaf ears. The SAI has different plans. "We won't be accommodating any NSFs into JNS," says SAI DG Gopal Krishan, adding, "We are planning to open the National Institute of Science and Medicine here and it will be allotted the second floor of the stadium. We won't have any room left to accommodate federation offices."
(Inputs by Ritu Sejwal, Biswajyoti Brahma and Devadyuti Das)