Srinagar: In a major boost to the sports ecosystem of Jammu & Kashmir, the Government of India has accorded approval for the establishment of the first National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Sports for J&K, to come up in Kashmir.
The proposed Centre, to be developed in Kashmir, marks a transformative step in positioning Jammu & Kashmir as a premier destination for high altitude sports, elite athlete development, advanced sports science, and world-class training infrastructure, an official press release informed.
The approved NCOE is envisioned as a premier national centre for High Altitude Sports and various athletic competitions, while also serving as a major platform for skilling thousands of local youths in multiple sporting disciplines, it said, adding that the Centre is expected to significantly strengthen the sports-development architecture of the Union Territory by integrating training, talent identification, sports science, performance enhancement, rehabilitation, residential facilities, and competition infrastructure within one advanced campus.
The NCOE campus will include athletics tracks, indoor courts, football turf, hockey turfs, kabaddi and kho-kho courts, shooting range, swimming pool, taekwondo hall, sports Skilling centres, integrated strength & conditioning and rehabilitation complex, hostels, sports science centre, and sports medicine centre. Together, these facilities will create a high-performance ecosystem capable of nurturing talent from the grassroots to the elite level.
The establishment of the NCOE is expected to put Jammu & Kashmir leaps and bounds ahead in its capacity to produce athletes of national and international standing.
For the first time, the Union Territory will have access to an integrated, national-standard institutional platform where promising athletes can train under scientific conditions with the support of modern infrastructure, recovery systems, residential facilities, and specialized performance services. This will not only enhance sporting outcomes but also reduce the distance between local talent and elite opportunity.
The Centre is particularly significant for Jammu & Kashmir because of its strategic suitability for high altitude training, a proven advantage in building endurance, stamina, and competitive performance across several disciplines.
Once established, the NCOE will enable athletes from J&K and beyond to train in an environment ideally suited for long-term athletic development, while also creating opportunities for the region to host training camps, coaching programmes, national-level competitions, and performance-based sports initiatives.
The project is also expected to have a far-reaching developmental impact beyond competitive sports. By creating a robust institutional structure for sports training and youth engagement, the NCOE will help generate a stronger culture of discipline, aspiration, and achievement among young people. It will open pathways for local youth not only as athletes, but also as coaches, trainers, technical officials, physiotherapists, sports science professionals, fitness experts, and support personnel. In this manner, the Centre will serve both as a high-performance sports institution and as a long-term engine of youth empowerment, skilling, and social development.
The NCOE has already undergone preliminary feasibility assessment, which has found the location suitable for development of a major sports training facility. The availability of a large tract of government land at the site gives the project the scale and flexibility needed for a national-standard integrated campus of international standards.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya for approving the first National Centre for Excellence in the Union Territory.
“I am grateful to Hon’ble PM Shri @Narendramodi Ji & Hon’ble Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, GoI Dr. @mansukhmandviya Ji for approval of J&K’s first National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) at Awantipora, Pulwama, which will serve as a premier national centre for High Altitude Sports and various athletic competitions besides Skilling thousands of youths in various sports,” Sinha said in a post on X.
The LG said the facilities at NCOE campus will include athletics tracks, indoor courts, football turf, hockey turfs, kabaddi and kho-kho courts, shooting range, swimming pool, taekwondo hall, integrated strength and conditioning and rehab complex, hostels, sports science centre, and sports medicine centre.
Sinha said this state-of-the-art Centre will bring world-class infrastructure and elite coaching right to the Union Territory, training the next generation of Olympic and international champions.
