Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today inaugurated the high-performance hockey centre – Naval Tata Hockey Academy (NTHA) in the State capital to nurture the best hockey talent in the State into future national and international players.
The elite hockey academy has been set up in Bhubaneswar as part of the three-pronged Tata Odisha Hockey Programme, a joint initiative of Tata Steel, Tata Trusts and Government of Odisha to nurture sports talent in the State, which is already being hailed as a cradle for the sport.
The State government sports hostels in Bhubaneswar, Sundargarh, and Rourkela will become the Regional Development Centres (RDCs), where experts engaged by Tata Trusts and Tata Steel will work with the RDCs to further enhance their efficiency and excellence, an official statement said.
Besides, 10-20 grassroots centres will initially be set up in Sambalpur and Sundargarh districts. The talent scouted from the grassroots centres will be recommended for admission into the sports hostels.
The grassroots centres and the RDCs will ensure the continuous flow of talent into NTHA.
The government will help develop infrastructure in these regions to improve the quality of hockey players being fed into the RDCs and NTHA Odisha.
NTHA Odisha will be operated from the existing infrastructure that was set-up to host the Odisha Men’s Hockey World Cup in 2018 in Bhubaneswar. Access to the Abhinav Bindra Target Performance Centre, Bhubaneshwar, will provide the best sports medicine support to improve the performance of the players.
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