By IANS,
New Delhi : The central government Thursday approved an allocation of Rs. 6.78 billion to help the Indian athletes prepare for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) earmarked Rs.3.75 billion for training and exposure while Rs. 850 million will go towards upgradation of Sports Authority of India (SAI) centres and Rs.2.18 billion for providing sport science back-up and medical facilities to the sportspersons.
The allocation was made under the scheme ‘Preparation of Indian Team for Commonwealth Games, 2010’. The scheme is aimed at helping India’s performances in international sports and to enhance its medals tally in major international events, particularly the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune this year and the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held here.
The funds will also be utilised for the state of the art training, to provide better competitive opportunities to elite sportspersons, and to develop a system of selection of sportspersons based on performance monitoring in the run-up to the international events.
Under the scheme, 10 SAI centres will be upgraded to international standards and top class equipments will also be procured.