How much sports infrastructure is needed in Jammu & Kashmir

By JV Team

Published On: March 20, 2018

According to a report by the State Sports Council, Jammu and Kashmir needs 2500 play fields for its 1.21 crore population to harness its true sporting potential and take sports from the capitals to other districts and towns of the state.
At present, there are only 137 play fields in the state and with most of them concentrated in Srinagar district.
Surprisingly, Leh and Kargil, which constitute a greater portion of the state have no play fields at all.
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According to the Daily Excelsior, Srinagar district alone has 29 playfields while entire Jammu region has only 34. Additionally, Kashmir region has a total of 103 playfields against mere 34 in Jammu region.
The sports council is looking upto the state and central governments to provide the said number of playfields with each field catering to 8000 persons each.
The athletes from the state have won over 250 medals in zonal and national level sporting events during 2016-17, the official said adding this was testimony to the enthusiasm for sports in the state.
As per the projections for infrastructure development, the Sports Council wants the number of playing fields in Baramulla district to be increased from present 22 to 320. Similarly, in Anantnag district, the council wants to add 258 playing grounds to the existing 17 grounds.
The council, in its report, has laid major thrust on increasing the number of play fields in Jammu division from 34 to 1302 in order to provide sporting opportunities to the nearly 70 lakh population. It has also proposed 200 playing fields for Udhampur district, 197 for Rajouri, 185 for Kathua, 175 for Jammu district, and around 100 each play fields for other districts of the division. Only Doda (50) and Samba (68) districts have got a proposal of less than 100 play fields.
The council, in the report, has laid major thrust on increasing the number of play fileds in Jammu division from 34 to 1302, in order to provide enough opportunities to the greatly ignored sports talent from the region.