68 new sports complexes to be built in Punjab, says minister

LAHORE:In a significant development, Punjab Minister for Labour, Youth Affairs and Sports Malik Faisal Ayub Khokhar while presiding over an important meeting, announced several mega sports projects for next year. Besides this various important decisions were made for the promotion of sports culture at a meeting held at National Hockey Stadium on Monday.

Faisal Khokhar said that 68 new sports complexes will be constructed in Punjab with a cost of Rs11 billion. “In ADP 2025-26, the Punjab Sports Department will work on sports schemes worth Rs25 billion across the province”.

Addressing the meeting, Faisal Khokhar announced a mega project of building 100 outdoor grounds of volleyball, basketball and badminton in all districts of Punjab. Rs3 million will be spent on each sports facility of this project. He also directed to prepare a plan to construct 50 sports outdoor facilities on model locations of provincial capital.

He informed that a hefty amount of Rs800 million will be spent on the upgradation of Punjab Stadium and the seating capacity of the stadium will also be enhanced to 12,000. “An open volleyball court will be constructed at Nishtar Park Sports Complex,” he added.

Faisal further said that an archery complex, climbing wall and baseball ground will be built in provincial capital. “The state-of-the-art squash complex will also be completed this year. Similarly, wrestling arenas (akharas) will be constructed in many cities of Punjab while wrestling stadium will be completed in Gujranwala this year.”

He informed that sports complexes will be constructed in DG Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Esa Khel, Mianwali, Pir Mahal, Toba Tek Singh, Ahmedpur Shariqa, Mandi Bahauddin, Alipur Chattha, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Pasrur, Sialkot, Vehari, Lodhran and other cities of the province. Besides this, the synthetic hockey turf will be installed in Sahiwal, he added.

He said that two sports complexes one each for board games (chess, carom board, e-games etc) and table tennis will be constructed in Nishtar Park Sports Complex.

The meeting was attended by Secretary Sports and Youth Affairs Muzaffar Khan Sial, DG Sports Punjab Khizar Afzaal Chaudhry, Director Admin Dr M Kaleem, Project Director PMU Qaiser Raza, Deputy Director Tariq Khanzada and Section Officer Mirza Nadeem Ahmed.