Minister for Sports Kollu Ravindra on Wednesday inaugurated the synthetic track and floodlights spruced up for the Amaravati 57th National inter-State senior athletic meet scheduled to be held at the Acharya Nagarjuna University campus.
He said the State government had granted ₹27.60 crore for developing various sports infrastructure such as flood lights, warm up track, 200-bed sports hostel and fitness centre, at the campus.
As many as 1,000 athletes along with 200 officials from 32 States will take part in the mega event.
The meet assumes significance as the Indian contingent to take part in the world athletic championship scheduled to be held at London in August will be picked.
The new-look ANU campus with an eight-lane synthetic track and a six-lane warm up synthetic track will host the event under floodlights for the first time. Most of the events will be conducted under broad-beamed flood-lights surrounding the track. “The sports lighting has been designed with state-of-the-art technology with two KW metal fittings on 45-metre high mast. These fittings are imported from Russia,” said the Minister. “The highlight of the floodlights is that it suits the latest slow motion high definition cameras, which will capture the slow finishes”.The Athletics Federation of India is making all necessary arrangements with sample kits and doctors for the mandatory dope test on the athletes.
First aid centre
The Sports Authourity of Andhra Pradesh has procured ₹2 crore worth of new athletic equipment of international standards.
“An exclusive first aid centre will function under the supervision of doctors from NRI Hospitals and Andhra Hospitals,” said Andhra Pradesh Athletic Association secretary A. Raghavendra. “The varsity authorities are also coming up with a power substation with generator facility as a backup”.Minister for Finance Yanamala Ramakrishnudu will inaugurate the championship.
“With the new capital city coming up at Amaravati just 15km from ANU, this centre will transform into a hub for athletics activities in the State,” said L.V. Subrahmanyam, Special Chief Secretary (Sports) to Andhra Pradesh Government.