Report by Shreya Agarwal
Ladakh recently got its first football turf and open synthetic track. It is situated at an altitude of approximately 11,000ft.
The stadium was planned under the Khelo India initiative. Both the football turf and the open synthetic track has been constructed over 130 kanals (a unit equal to one-eighth acre) of area in the Spituk Belt of the area.
The cost for this is approximately 10.68 crores.
What is the Khelo India Programme?
Realising India’s amazing potential (what one can do) in various sports, and to improve the sports culture in India, the Khelo India programme was inaugurated by Col. Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore (the Sports Minister at that time) in 2017-18.
The main elements of the programme are:
Play field development
Community Coaching Development
State Level Khelo India Centres
Annual Sports Competition
Talent Search and Development
Utilization and Creation/ Upgradation of Sports Infrastructure
Support to National/ Regional/ State Sports Academics
Physical fitness of school children
Sports for Women
Promotion of sports amongst people with disabilities
Sports for Peace and Development
Promotion of rural and indigenous/ tribal games
About Ladakh
Ladakh is among the world’s highest cold deserts. It was demerged from Jammu and Kashmir and given its own administrative unit on August 5th, 2019. Since then, several initiatives like Khelo India games, development projects, etc. have been started in this region.
Sports trainers say that before this, they had to run on roads. Construction of these would benefit them as now, it would be easier for them to measure distance and speed accurately.