Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to serve as quarantine facility
THE JLN STADIUM HAS A 200-BED HOSTEL AND THERE ARE TWO ACADEMIES — POLE VAULT AND SPRINT — ON THE PREMISES
nNEWDELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at the heart of the national capital is being transformed into a quarantine facility in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The order to take over the stadium from the Sports Authority of India was sent on Monday by Harleen Kaur, district magistrate, chairperson, DDMA, South East Delhi.
“..it has been considered necessary to requisite premises/ building of Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium Complex, Lodhi Road, under the provisions of Section 34 of DM Act-2005 (Disaster Management) for utilizing the same for the purpose of creating quarantine facility to house the persons/ people,” Kaur wrote in a letter to Sports Authority of India, secretary.
Kaur requested that the stadium be handed over immediately to the district administration South East.
The JLN stadium has a 200-bed hostel and there are two academies—pole vault and sprint—in the premises. The hostel and the academies are currently shut.
There are also SAI and Income Tax department offices inside the campus.
“There are many offices running at JLN Stadium premises. If they want to take over the entire stadium, it will take some time to shift operations. The hostel can be taken over immediately,” a SAI official said.
The sports ministry has already said that SAI centres across the country would be made available for use by the health ministry as is mandated by the Disaster Management Policy.
This isn’t the first SAI facility that will be used as a quarantine facility with the boxing training centre in Rohtak, Haryana and the SAI Training Facility at the National Institute of Sport (NIS) in Patiala, Punjab both being used now as quarantine facilities.
The Sports Ministry had on March 22 announced that facilities under SAI across the country will be made available for usage as quarantine facilities.
Sports Secretary R.S. Jhulaniya had said that the facilities across the countries were available and could be used by the district administration whenever required.