Jharkhand was the dominant force
in the sports in the undivided Bihar. The love of sports runs
deep in Jharkhand. Soon after the creation of the State &
enthused by it, Jharkhand Olympic Association was created and
in June of 2001 it got affiliated with Indian Olympic
Association. Athletics & sports persons from Jharkhand wanted
to display their strength & love for sports, even in its early
days. This idea took shape in form of the proposal to host
National Games. After collecting all the necessary
infrastructure details from the state, the officials of
Jharkhand Olympic Association met with the then Chief Minister
Sri Babu Lal Marandi, Sri. V. S. Dubey-Chief Secretary & Sri.
G. Krishanan, Development Commisioner and after getting their
assurance for whole hearted support, the officials of
Jharkhand Olympic Association prepared the bid. The Govt. of
Jharkhand granted a sum of Rs.5.00 lakhs on 27th March 2002 to
JOA as initial bid amount. Despite festival of Holi, the
Jharkhand Olympic association officials went to IOA office at
New Delhi and submitted the bid on 31st March, the last day
for submitting the document.
After Punjab National Games in 2001, the officials of JOA
started working on preparation of presentation to be made at
IOA General Council Meeting, which could show our true
strength and eagerness to host the national games. Jhrakhand
believes in bringing professional approach to whatever it
does. Thus, professional agency and cameramen were hired to
capture the vibrancy, resources and people of the state.
It was the month of Oct. 2002, when at the IOA General Body at
hotel Taj Krishna at Hydrabad. The presentation from Jharkhand
was led by Sri. Baij Nath Ram, Hon’ble Sports Minister; Shri.
R. K. Anand , MP & president, Jharkhand Olympic Association,
Sri. N. N. Pandey-IAS, Secretary Sports, Sri S. M. Hashmi,
Secretary General & Sri. M. K. Pathak, Treasurer, JOA, were
other members of the presentation team. Thanks to the superb
presentation made by Jharkhand team and persuasion of Sri. R.
K. Anand, MP & president, JOA, Jharkhand won the mandate to
host 2007 National Games. There was a tough competition with
Haryana, Goa, UP, Assam for this mandate.
Jharkhand prepared and submitted a comprehensive proposal with
necessary bid amount to IOA in the month of Jan 2003 at the
IOA executive council meeting, held at New Delhi, it was
confirmed that Jharkhand would host the 34th national games in
2007 in Ranchi.
Then the JOA officials had many meetings with Hon’ble Chief
Minister Sri. Arjun Munda, Secretary Sports Sr. N. N. Sinha,
IAS and the then Director Sports Sri Amitabh Choudhary, IPS
and detailed road map was prepared for successful conduct of
the National Games 2007.
After that the Govt. of Jharkhand took initiative for
preparing the infrastructure. The Govt. of Jharkhand had a
tough task at hand for creating and arranging the
infrastructure for hosting the largest event and celebration
of sports in the country. The city of Ranchi, which was chosen
as the principal host for the Games, had a few stadiums, but
none had the capacity and the facility to hold National Games.
We saw it an opportunity to create international level
facilities, which would also provide facilities for talented
sportsmen to hone their talent and a one stop facility for
hosting national & international meets of highest standards.
Thus, the idea of Mega Sports Complex was borne, which would
contain venues for almost all the events viz. Athletics,
football, Basketball, Volleyball, Gymnastics, Kabbadi, Kho-Kho,
Swimming, Shooting, Cycling, Tennis to name a few. A 325 acre
site was selected at Hotwar in close vicinity of Ranchi after
making a through search. After a long-drawn process,
international consultant consortium was selected to design and
provide construction supervision in Dec.2004. In order to
incorporate features of best international facilities, a team
led by Hon’ble minister of sports visited Sydney Olympic
Complex, Australia; Commonwealth Games Complex, Kualalampur,
Malaysia and some stadium in Singapore in May’ 05. These
inputs were incorporated into the design of the facilities in
the complex. After a two stage selection process, very well
known and reputed constructors have been awarded work in June
2006 with mandate to complete the work in 16 months.
The work is also going on to renovate and upgrade the Hockey
stadium/Astroturf and Shaheed Birsa Munda Stadium to expand
and augment their facilities and make them international class
venues.
Accommodation for players during National Games is a massive
logistical challenge. Jharkhand Government is developing a
state of the Art Games Village through a public private
partnership model just adjacent to the Mega Sports Complex. In
fact, these are so close to each other that players can simply
stroll over to Sports Complex.
Jharkhand Olympic Association and Govt. of Jharkhand, are
working very closely for organization of 34th
National Games and are committed to make it a success. We
solicit the cooperation and good wishes of the IOA, Ministry
of Sports, GOI and the entire sports community to make 34th
National Games a grand success.
