LAHORE: The Punjab government has allocated Rs8.507 billion for the 116 ongoing and 133 new schemes for sports and youth af f airs in the fiscal budget 2017-18 announced by provincial knance minister Ayesha Ghaus Pasha before the Punjab Assembly here on Friday.

In the ADP 2016-17, Rs5.965 billion have been allocated to this sector.

Amid the proposed budget some new mega projects have been suggested such as the establishment of a university of sports, sports city, an international standard hostel and a five-star hotel in the Nishtar Sports Complex. For the feasibility report, a sum of Rs9 million each has been proposed for the university and sports city projects.

All these new mega projects are the need of the hour as there is no proper facility for the accommodation of the athletes in the Nishtar Sports Complex. A five-star hotel is also the demand of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to avoid long travelling of the visiting teams for security reasons.

A sports university is also required to feed technical exper-tise in the shape of coaches, trainers, food nutritionists, and other related staff, if the government wants to make maximum use of its sportsinfrastructure.

Moreover, for the 116 ongoing schemes Rs2,516,446 million have been allocated, including Rs32.148 million for 15 playing fields/cricket grounds being built in Lahore. The total cost of these 15 grounds is Rs328.929 million and the government had already released Rs296.781 million in 2016-17 budget.

For 31 other regular schemes of the province, an amount of Rs781.592 million has been allocated in the fiscal year. For the ongoing six sports complexes Rs95.471 million have been proposed. And to complete 12 stadia Rs152.154 million are allocated. For nine ongoing gymnasiums Rs113.467 are allotted.

As for the 133 new schemes, Rs 4,947 million have been proposed.

For 87 regular project Rs3,347.098 million are required. For new 26 playing helds/cricket grounds Rs1,234.202 million are proposed to be allocated. For three new sports complexes, the amount proposed is R s75 million.

An amount of Rs105.888 million has been allocated to complete thelaying of all-weather synthetic athletics track at the Punjab Stadium.

The old one has been removed a couple of years back but as the work is going on at a snail`s pace and another year is required to complete the project. It is the only track availablein the province.

An amount of Rs69.714 million has been proposed to lay an Astroturf at the National Hockey Stadium`s ground No 2.

Interestingly, the Astroturf had been removed three years back to lay down a new one but sofar the project is incomplete. The Astroturf at the main National Hockey Stadium is not in a perfect condition but the Punjab government is not bothered about it.

The government has also decided to resume the work on the International Squash Complex, located in the Nishtar Sports Complex. The work had been suspended in 1994 due to red-tape as a basic structure has been there for the last 25 years.

Moreover, almost every district of Punjab will get sports infrastructure in case the budget will be approved. Out of 133 new schemes, almost 50 sports projects are proposed for the south Punjab while remaining are for the Central and Northern Punjab.