Hyderabad civic body rolls back user fee hike at sports facilities

HYDERABAD: In a major relief to sportspersons as well as for educational institutions hiring GHMC playgrounds and indoor complexes, the civic body has kept on hold the hike in user fees. Indoor complexes, stadiums and sports complexes run by GHMC had more than doubled their user fees in September last year. All these put together facilitate about 37 forms of sport such as cricket, badminton, roller skating, hockey, boxing, volleyball, football, basketball, table tennis and the like. For some sports, GHMC had tripled the user charges. There are 521 playgrounds, 13 sports complexes, 14 indoor stadia, 19 outdoor stadia in GHMC limits.

The rise in user fees had greatly inconvenienced parents, especially those from slums, who wanted their children to play some form of sport. Public representatives including MLAs and corporators requested the GHMC to reduce the user fee on humanitarian grounds.As a result, the same charges that were fixed in 2012 will continue now.

The monthly user fees per individual on sports like karate, hockey, boxing, volleyball, football, basketball, table tennis, chess, carrom, gymnastics, judo, sepak-takraw, tennikoit, taekwondo, wushu, baseball, wrestling, korfball, athletics, cycling, kickboxing, kabaddi, fencing and others that was increased from Rs 50 to Rs 200, will be reduced to Rs 50 again.

Similarly, user fees for summer camps for each individual that was revised from Rs 50 to Rs 100  for games like cricket, shuttle, tennis, table tennis and roller skating has been rolled back to Rs 50. For other games, the user fee will be Rs 10 only. The idea is to promote sports across all sections of society and encourage players who can compete internationally.

“The story of cricketer Yashaswi Jaiswal, India’s top scorer in the under-19 World Cup has inspired many youngsters. A lad who sold panipuri for three years and slept in a tent at Azad Maidan is now known as India’s most promising cricketer. We have several such promising young players in Hyderabad in all fields. Reducing the user fee is our small contribution to sport,” said a GHMC official.      

The GHMC has in recent years converted many of its playgrounds to multi-purpose sports complexes and developed swimming pools and outdoor stadia.