Berhampur: The Sports Authority of India (SAI) will soon launch five new Khelo India Centres (KICs) under a Central scheme in five districts of Odisha.
The new KICs will be in three different disciplines and they will be opened in Ganjam, Gajapati, Jharsuguda, Nayagarh and Deogarh districts of Odisha.
While the Khelo India Basketball centre will be opened at the Government Queen of the Mission High School in Ganjam district, the Khelo India Kho-Kho centres will be opened at Government SVT High School and RK Government School in Gajapati and Jharsuguda districts. The centre for football will be opened in Teleibani PS High School and Narayana Government High School in the Deoghar and Nayagarh districts.
SAI has recently informed the Odisha government about the opening of the centres after the project was approved by the competent authority on Thursday.
The SAI would be given funds to run the centres and coaches or mentors for the proposed centres will be engaged in the next two months.
Former champion athletes should be engaged as coaches in each discipline, while the talent pool identification would be done by the respective past champion athletes or organisations adhering to the guidelines of the scheme. Each centre must have strived to have an equal ratio of male to female trainees.
According to the official website of Khelo India, 26 KICs in nine disciplines have been approved for 25 of 30 districts of Odisha, of which six have now started operations.
