Shillong, Aug 28: The Meghalaya government is studying a draft host city contract for hosting the national games in 2022.
Meghalaya State Olympic Association (MSOA) working president, John F. Kharshiing on Monday said that the draft host city contract was sent to the state recently by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), and the same was being scrutinized by the sports department, law and finance departments.
He informed that a working group on national games had met twice and discussed about the draft host city contract.
“After vetting, the draft contract will be forwarded to the state cabinet for its approval before sending it back to the IOA. Receiving the draft host city contract is a milestone to getting to host the national games,” Kharshiing said.
He also said that after submitting the draft contract to the IOA, the next step that would follow is the signing of the contract.
On March 21 this year, Meghalaya received a letter from the Indian Olympic Association that confirmed to the Meghalaya State Olympic Association its approval of Meghalaya’s bid to host the XXXIX (39th) National Games in 2022.
Meghalaya would tentatively host as many as 29 Olympic disciplines and 6 non-Olympic disciplines during the proposed National Games 2022 which will also coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Statehood of Meghalaya.
Meghalaya is the third state after Manipur (1999) and Assam (2007) among the North Eastern States that bid for hosting the National Games.
According to Kharshiing, after signing the contract, a national games orgsanising committee will be constituted besides various committees including a committee on creating of sports infrastructure in the state.
Kharshiing said that atleast Rs 2000 crore would be required for hosting the national games especially for creating of infrastructure where the Central and state governments would share the responsibility in as far as making funds available for the purpose.
Kharshiing said that according to the draft host city contract, Meghalaya is expected to receive between 8000 and 9,000 athletes and officials.
However creating infrastructure for the mega event may not be that easy in Meghalaya due to problem in land acquisition especially for creating games village.
Two games villages are likely to come up, one in the state capital, Shillong and another at Tura, the district headquarters of West Garo Hills district.
Kharshiing said that while most disciplines for the national games would be hosted by Shillong, and Tura would get to host eight or nine disciplines.
