The Sports Ministry of India has decided to upgrade eight Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE). Eight states were identified and have been approved for the setting up of KISCE's in the first leg. These states are Odisha, Mizoram, Telangana, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. The estimated cost for the upgrade will be Rs 95.19 crore.
The upgrade will include improvement of the infrastructure, setting up of a sports science centre where there will be sports science human resources such as physiotherapists as well as strength and conditioning experts. Equipment of high quality shall also be made available. Further, the academies will also be equipped with a High Performance Manager, with a role to ensure quality sports science input and performance management. This upgrade will happen as the Sports Ministry aims to identify and groom more future Olympic champions from the country.
The existing sporting infrastructure will be upgraded as the Sports Ministry will partner with the respective states and Union Territories.
A statement from the Sports Ministry said that each KISCE will be given sports-specific support in 14 Olympic sports out of which one state or Union Territory will be given support for a maximum of three sports, as reported by the Times of India.
On the decision to set up KISCE's, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said, "These Khelo India State Center of Excellence is yet another step towards building a robust sports ecosystem one one hand and India's pursuit of excellence in Olympics, on the other."
These state-of-the-art centres will ensure that athletes proficient in a certain sport can be given the highest level of training and these centres become the best facilities in the country to train athletes in the priority sport for which they have been earmarked."
"I am confident this step will help to further India's effort in becoming one of the top 10 countries in the Olympics in 2028," he further added.
The Sports Ministry is further set to establish KISCE's in six more states, namely Assam, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya and Sikkim, which have been identified in the second leg.