Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

120 playgrounds to be spruced up

By Afshan Yasmeen

BANGALORE Aug. 13. After letting the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) develop tennis courts on 11 of its playgrounds, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) now plans to provide "modern sports facilities" at all its grounds.

This is being done not only to curb encroachment and misuse of playgrounds by anti-social elements, but also to encourage sports enthusiasts, according to the BMP.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Department of Youth Services and Sports have been asked to survey 140 playgrounds to find out which sport is best suited to a particular ground. The survey that was started last week is likely to be completed by August end.

The civic body plans to set up courts for basketball, badminton, hockey, football, volleyball, and other sports. Small stadiums and pavilions for people to sit and watch the game, changing rooms, and toilets are part of the proposal.

The BMP owned 140 playgrounds and infrastructure for various sports activities would be developed in 120 of these. The remaining 20 were small fields and there was no possibility of developing any sports activities on them, the BMP Deputy Commissioner (Development II), K.R.Niranjan, told The Hindu on Wednesday.

"It has been noticed that there is a tendency to use open fields to play cricket. There are very few grounds where football, volleyball, and other games are played. The field study will reveal which game can be developed on a particular ground,'' he said.

"The survey will consider various aspects such as the needs of local residents and size of the ground. If a neighbourhood sports association or club is running a facility for football lovers, we will develop some other sports facility there," he said.

The service, not only for BMP school students but also for the public, would be provided free of cost.

A nominal user-fee might be collected from those who use indoor stadiums, he said.

As part of its social welfare activities, the BMP allotted sports equipment worth Rs. 50 lakh to various sports associations in each ward every year. So, it had no plans of providing sports equipment in playgrounds.

Once the survey was completed, the BMP would invite experts to design the facilities, especially the courts, and stadiums.

The project would be implemented through the usual tender process within the available budget provisions, Mr. Niranjan added.

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