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The Jawahar Lal Nehru (JLN) Stadium in the Capital is likely to be dismantled to pave way for a sports city that will house venues for all the major Olympic disciplines, along with residential facilities for athletes, a high-ranking Sports Ministry official said on Monday. The concept, inspired by a similar model executed in Doha, is still at an “ideation phase”, the official said.
“No timeline has been fixed for the project yet as it is in ideation phase. We are assessing sports cities like the one in Doha. Once all of that is done, we will move ahead with the planning phase,” the source said.
The JLN Stadium was originally built for the 1982 Asian Games. Ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the facility got a Rs 961-crore makeover and recently, before the World Para Athletics championship, a further Rs 50 crore was spent for upgradation.
Currently, apart from a main football stadium and athletics track, the sports complex houses an archery academy, badminton courts, offices of the Sports Authority of India, the National Anti Doping Agency and the National Dope Testing Laboratory, among others.
Asked what will happen to these, the source said: “All the offices will be relocated and, similarly, the main stadium will be dismantled. Residential complexes will be built so that when athletes come here to participate in an event, they can stay near the stadium.”
The ministry wants to utilise the 102-acre area of the stadium complex, as a lot of it is unused at present. “Right now, we are able to use close to 35 percent of the whole area and the thought behind the revamp is to use the spaces more efficiently,” the source said.
The stadium, with a seating capacity of 60,000, is among the country’s most iconic venues. It also hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2017 Under-17 FIFA World Cup. The stadium is also used for non-sports activities like music concerts and food festivals.
Most recently, it hosted the World Para Athletics Championships. Ahead of the tournament, two new Mondo tracks in the main stadium and practice area were laid while 10,000 new seats were installed in the lower spectators’ gallery. Additionally, the stadium was made wheelchair-friendly with new lifts and accessible washrooms.
The source said that one of the models being looked at is the Doha Sports City. Earlier this month, Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya was in the Qatari capital and visited various sports sites, including the Aspire complex and the Lusail Stadium, which hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
However, this is not the first time the current government has thought of revamping the stadium completely. Back in 2020, during the time of Kiren Rijiju as Sports Minister, approximately Rs 8,000-crore makeover of the stadium was proposed.
Bids were invited for the proposal as the sports ministry said it ‘has decided to redevelop/develop Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi, to unlock value from optimal utilisation of its iconic sporting asset’.
It was proposed to set up a national/international level indoor training venue for basketball (one court), badminton (two courts), and table tennis (four courts). Apart from the training venues, the complex would have got a 3-5 star accommodation facility.
Currently, Zora Convention Center is functional inside the JLN complex that hosts events and big conventions including press conferences.
