Bhubaneswar, Mar 23: State Cabinet on Tuesday approved the “State-level Sports Infrastructure Development Project” for development of sports infrastructure at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar and International Hockey Stadium, Rourkela.

Odisha is the host for the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup-2023 with venues at Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. For this purpose, a new International Hockey Stadium is intended to be developed at Rourkela with a seated capacity of 20,000 spectators. This will be the largest hockey stadium in India.

State Government has established High Performance Centres (HPCs) in various sports disciplines at Kalinga Stadium in partnership with various corporates and elite sports persons. The infrastructure for these HPCs is the responsibility of the State Government. In order to cater to the requirement of the HPCs and other sports disciplines, expansion and up-gradation of the infrastructure facilities at Kalinga Stadium will also be made.

Out of the total estimated cost Rs. 356.38 crores, Rs 90 crores will be allocated through budgetary allocation of state government spreading across three financial years starting from 2020-21. The remaining amount is to be funded through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), District Mineral Foundation, Sundargarh and Odisha Sports Development Fund (OSDF). The Project will be completed in 16 months.