World class swimming facility comes up
To give a fillip to the not-so-popular pool sport in the city, the Mata Amrithananda Mayi Math with support from the Centre has come up with a state-of-the-art Category One (50m x 25m) swimming pool at its premises in Ettimadai village. The Member Secretary of the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDATN), Atulya Misra, who was here to inspect the eight-lane pool with associated building, water filtration plant, change rooms and toilet facilities, was impressed with the site location and work."They have done a wonderful job. The site location is pretty nice with the mountain backdrop giving it a natural look," said Mr. Misra. He said Tamil Nadu has great potential for swimming. "It can be a major event in the State. "It has caught up in Chennai, and Coimbatore can start working that extra bit on the sport from now." The swimming pool is estimated at Rs 1,20,81,856 and has a pool capacity of 24 lakh litres.
While inspecting the re-laying work on the football field at the Nehru Stadium, Mr. Misra said it was only a matter of time for the stadium to sport a new look. "The synthetic surface and the re-laying of the football ground should be over in three months. We are pumping in more than Rs. 3 crore for the entire project. There's no point spending such a huge sum if we don't set right or beautify the entire stadium. "We are looking at getting the floodlights repaired, setting up separate gymnasium and toilets for men and women."
The football field is being re-laid at a cost of Rs 14 lakhs. In the case of the synthetic surface, there are still small corrections that need to be done on the bitumen surface. An additional layer of the bitumen will be added before the synthetic surface is complete. Mr. Misra said they also plan to use the current rented shop space around the stadium complex for adding better sports facilities. "We are spending quite a sum on the stadium but we get only a meagre rent from these shops. So, slowly we'll try to see them off." After plenty of assurances, Mr. Misra left for Udhagamandalam and Kotagiri to inspect the youth hostel and mini stadium that are nearing completion.
