Residents of Mangalore, Udupi and Moodbidri can look forward to new swimming pools in their city. The pools, which will be ready in a few months, will be open to public every day for a few hours.
Training will be provided to school and college students in the pools, Minister of State for Youth Services K. Abhayachandra Jain told The Hindu.
While the pools in Mangalore and Udupi were being constructed at a cost of Rs. 2.5 crore each, the one in Moodbidri was being developed at a cost of Rs. 1.5 crore.
The pool in Mangalore would come up at Yemmekere, near Pandeshwar, and it would be maintained by the Mangalore City Corporation. The pool would cater to the needs of people from the southern parts of the city, he said.
It had been decided to construct new sports complex with a synthetic track, a badminton court and State Youth Empowerment Centre in Moodbidri to cater to the needs of a large number of students there, Mr. Jain said.
The complex would be developed on 28.5-acre land belonging to the department. There were nearly 30,000 students in engineering, science and arts colleges in Moodbidri, the Minister said. The sports infrastructure would be put to full use during the All India Inter-University Athletic Meet scheduled to be held in Moodbidri in January 2015.
Alva’s Education Foundation, which runs Ekalavya Sports Club in Moodbidri, had involved more than 600 students, including those studying in its institutes and other primary and high schools, in sports.
Mr. Jain said a new badminton indoor court was thrown open to the public in Udupi. A sum of Rs. 45 lakh was spent on the court, the construction which was proposed by the former Home Minister late V.S. Acharya.
The department had plans to develop sport infrastructure in Belgaum city where there are a large number of educational institutions.
