Andhra govt starts identifying land for Sindhu's badminton academy in Vizag

Visakhapatnam: The Vizag district administration has begun the exercise to identify suitable land for World Badminton Champion PV Sindhu, who wants to set up an exclusive badminton academy in the city.

The ace shuttler had expressed her dream to establish an academy in Vizag during a meeting with Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in September 2019. The CM had assured her that his government would allocate 5 acres of land for the training centre.

Sources said Jagan recently directed the Vizag district administration to identify the land and hand it over to Sindhu.

Sources said Revenue Officer K Murthy and his team recently visited Adavivaram, Madhurawada and few other places where a huge chunk of government land is available to spot out the best location for the academy.

PV Sindhu along with a few others also visited Vizag on Monday and went to the Simhachalam temple near the city.

Though Vizag is tipped to be a smart city and a hub of many sports, it lacks basic sports infrastructure such as indoor stadiums and green grounds to produce top players from the city.

If the proposal translates into action, it will be the first of its kind badminton academy in Vizag, said Minister for Sports M Srinivasa Rao.

Sources said the revenue officials will likely allocate land near Adavivaram for Sindhu’s proposed academy.

The Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh has proposed to set up a badminton academy in Vizag, it hasn't moved ahead in many years.

"Sindhu, who is a Telugu girl will win more medals including Gold Medal in the upcoming Olympics and we are also expecting that Sindhu’s dreams to produce top-class shuttlers from Andhra Pradesh will be a reality in the coming years," sports minister Srinivas added.