Bhubaneswar: To further strengthen its sports infra, the State Government today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Steel to establish High Performance Centres(HPC) in Olympic Sports, Archery and Sport Climbing in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Sports Secretary R Vineel Krishna represented the Sports & Youth Services Department while Tata Steel was represented by Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services Tata Steel Ltd. and Chairman Tata Steel Adventure Foundation.
Odisha Tata Archery Academy and Odisha Tata Steel Adventure Foundation Sport Climbing Academy will be established in Bhubaneswar for development of athletes in the disciplines. Regional Development Centres will also be set up for archery while both academies will also run grassroots programs.
Led by experts, these HPCs will identify and nurture exceptional talent, empowering them to compete at national and international levels and provide top-notch infrastructure and training facilities.
These centres will serve as hubs for aspiring athletes to realize their full potential. These academies will feature players that are scouted from the State sports hostels, State level and National level programs.
The athletes will also have access to the sports facilities of the Sports & Youth Services Department for their holistic development, which will include the gymnasium, swimming pool and India’s largest sports science centre at the Kalinga Stadium.
On this occasion, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, said, “We are delighted to collaborate with Tata Steel in this endeavour. Our partnership with Tata Steel for Hockey High Performance Centre has been exemplary and produced encouraging results. “
“We have a huge potential for Archery and Sports Climbing in Odisha and in the country and with this new association we will be able to collectively contribute towards creating a conducive environment for athletes in these disciplines,” he said.
A bouquet of HPCs has been established by Odisha at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. This is a unique partnership model between a state and a corporate that has proven to produce elite athletes in Hockey, Football, Swimming, Athletics, Gymnastics, Sports Science, Shooting, Weightlifting and now archery and sport climbing will further benefit from this partnership.