By IANS,
New Delhi : The long-standing demand of Delhi’s basketball fans for an indoor stadium at the Ajmal Khan Park been finally been met, thanks to the Commonwealth Games. An air-conditioned stadium is coming up at the Ajmal Khan Park in West Delhi
For years there has been a clamour for a basketball stadium at Ajmal Khan Park, the venue of the popular Pandit Prithvi Nath Sharma memorial all-India basketball tournament, but successive local-self-government agencies stonewalled it for different reasons.
Basketball Federation of India (BIFA) secretary-general Harish Sharma told IANS the new stadium would be world-class with a 3,000-seat capacity. It will also have ten rooms for players’ stay and an ultra-modern multi-gym.
The BFI is also planning to house the National Basketball Academy at the stadium.
The foundation-laying ceremony was to be held this month, but it has been deferred to the first week of July to coincide with the visit of the National Basketball Association (NBA)stars for the Basketball Without Borders Asia event at the American School in Delhi from July 3-6 and also that of International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Secretary-General and IOC member Patrick Baumann. “The blue print for the stadium is ready and the work order has been given. The construction will begin by the July first week,” Sharma said.
The NDMC indoor stadium at the Talkatora Garden was the venue for the basketball competition in the 1982 Asian Games, but thereafter the stadium was used more for table tennis events or political conventions.