Puri, Oct 13: As per the direction of Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, Secretary to Chief Minister V K Pandian today visited the Puri stadium project site and supervised the ongoing works.

He reviewed the project progress in detail and directed to expedite the completion. He mentioned that it is the dream of the Chief Minister to make Puri into a world-class heritage city with all suitable amenities.

He discussed about the development of sports in Puri district. Puri town has a strong culture of akhadas and there is lot of scope for development of sports like wrestling, weightlifting, body building, yoga, gymnastics and boxing. He asked the officials present to explore regarding supporting the akhadas for sports development.

He further directed that residential cricket academy and wrestling academy to be established in the new sports complex.

The project is a part of the scheme “ABADHA” (Augmentation of Basic Amenities and Development of Heritage and Architecture) which intends to transform Puri into a world-class heritage City. The new sports complex is being constructed with an overall budget of Rs 40 crore.

The complex will mainly have the cricket stadium with practice nets and other facilities which will enable organising first-class cricket matches including Ranji Trophy. The complex will also have 50-m swimming pool, multipurpose indoor hall with facilities for boxing, wrestling, table tennis, gymnasium and 100-seated sports hostel.