Odisha will soon open an athletics facility at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, adding to the state’s burgeoning sports infrastructure. The stadium will be the country’s first indoor athletic facility and its development is planned to be completed by the end of 2022 at a cost of Rs 120 crore.

On Monday, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik visited the project site. “This indoor athletic facility will be a major boost for the development of athletics in India and will become the hub to create champions in coming years”. The facility can host national and international indoor athletic events. There will be a residential facility for more than 100 athletes for full-time coaching,” he said.

The stadium will allow sportsmen to train throughout the year without being distracted by outside factors.

Aside from the indoor athletics stadium, the Kalinga Stadium is working on projects costing Rs 180 crore, including an indoor aquatics stadium, a tennis facility, staff housing, and a building for the Hockey High-Performance Centre. The Tennis Centre is being built with the goal of hosting national and international events including IT F tournaments and the Davis Cup.

The Chief Minister also spoke with female footballers competing in the Odisha Women’s Football League, which is now in progress. He spoke with members of the men’s and women’s hockey teams, who are in the state for the FIH Pro league’s home leg.

Odisha has received a lot of accolades in recent years for boosting the sports sector. Bhubaneswar has been dubbed the country’s impending “Sports Capital” after hosting multiple high-profile athletic events, including the Asian Athletics Championships in 2017 and the Hockey World Cup in 2018.