Srinagar: After having hosted the first three editions successfully, the world-famous ski resort of Gulmarg is now again all set to host the 4th edition of the Khelo India Winter Games from February 2 to 6.
The 4th edition of the games would be directly conducted by the Sports Authority of India in association with the Olympic Ad Hoc Committee for Ski and Snowboard India and Winter Games Association of Jammu & Kashmir with active support from the J&K Government. This time the Gulmarg has been assigned to host Skiing, Snowboarding and Ski Mountaineering competitions while Ladakh will be hosting Ice events like Ice Skating and Ice Hockey. The games have been divided into two parts to turn into a professional competition with better and smoother facilities for all the participants.
More than 400 athletes from different States, UTs and the Army are going to be part of the Games in Gulmarg with competitions going to be held at Kongdoori and the main bowl of Gulmarg. The Alpine Skiing, Snowboarding and Ski Mountaineering competitions would be held at Kongdoori while as Nordic Skiing competitions would be held at Gulmarg. To make all arrangements ready, all stakeholders SAI, Sports Federations and J&K Government are making their efforts. Administrative Secretary, Youth Services and Sports Department J&K Government recently held a high-level meeting to review the arrangements for the games.
President of the Winter Games Association of J&K (WGAJK), Rauf Tramboo has been assigned as Competition Manager and all the alpine and snowboard events will be held under his watch and guidelines.
Terming it a historic in the Winter sports arena of the Country, Rauf Tramboo said, “We are highly thankful to the Ministry of Sports Government of India and Sports Authority of India for giving their full support to the Olympic Ad Hoc Committee for SSI and WGAJK. It is a historic moment as the Ministry and SAI have taken full control of the Khelo India Winter Games from this season and in coming times it is going to be even larger and better”.
“By taking the Khelo India Winter Games under its wings, the Sports Ministry has shown its seriousness in the promotion of winter sports. It is going to give a major boost to the winter sports in the Country and is going to attract more and more youth towards the sport,” Rauf Tramboo said.
Tramboo said that apart from the sports scenario, the Khelo India Winter Games also bring into focus the Tourism sector of Kashmir. “The Government of India specifically has given hosting rights of Khelo India Winter Games to Kashmir to give a major flip to winter and adventure tourism. With athletes from all over India coming to Kashmir for the games, the event is going to act as automatic winter tourism promotion and in coming years we will see its results,” he said.
Tramboo also thanked the J&K Government, J&K Sports Council and the Department of Tourism Kashmir for their continuing support and said that without their support the event wouldn’t have been a possibility.
