Kashmir Impulse Desk

Srinagar, June 25

The Government of India has approved the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir’s first National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Sports, a project aimed at transforming the Himalayan region into a hub for high-altitude training and elite athlete development, officials said on Thursday.

The facility, to be built in Kashmir, will be the first national-level sports excellence centre in J&K and is expected to strengthen India’s high-performance sports infrastructure while expanding opportunities for athletes from the region.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha welcomed the decision, thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya for approving what he described as a landmark project for Jammu and Kashmir’s sporting ecosystem.

“This state-of-the-art centre will bring world-class infrastructure and elite coaching to Jammu and Kashmir and help train the next generation of Olympic and international champions,” Sinha said.

Officials said the centre will focus on high-altitude sports training, sports science, talent identification and performance enhancement while providing integrated facilities for coaching, rehabilitation and athlete development.

The proposed campus will include athletics tracks, football and hockey turfs, indoor arenas, a swimming pool, a shooting range, a taekwondo hall, kabaddi and kho-kho facilities, residential hostels, sports medicine units and advanced strength and conditioning centres.

The project is designed to create a comprehensive training ecosystem capable of supporting athletes from the grassroots level through to international competition.

Authorities said the centre would also generate employment opportunities for coaches, physiotherapists, sports scientists, technical officials and other sports professionals, while helping position Kashmir as a destination for national training camps and international-standard competitions.

Jammu and Kashmir’s mountainous terrain and high-altitude environment have long been viewed as advantageous for endurance training across multiple sporting disciplines.

Officials said preliminary feasibility studies had identified the proposed site as suitable for development of a national sports campus, with sufficient government land available for future expansion.

The proposal was developed by the Jammu and Kashmir administration earlier this year and subsequently approved by the central government after technical evaluation.

The project forms part of wider efforts to strengthen sports infrastructure in the Union Territory and improve pathways for athletes aspiring to compete at the national and international levels.