60-year-old Panjim Gymkhana to get a new ` 4 crore building

savio@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: The status of sports has finally appeared to be developing at a large scale in the State. Adding to the development, the new construction of the Panjim Gymkhana is already in motion. Although the Panjim Gymkhana survived for the past many years it needs immediate attention in the field of development.

The gymkhana building in Panjim was constructed almost 60 years back according to some members of the club. The proposed building will be constructed at the cost of approximately Rs 4 crore. On completion, the building is expected give a new look to the place. 

The sports enthusiasts are eagerly waiting for the new construction as the proposed plan includes new facilities compared to the old gymkhana. The facilities in the plan will benefit the sport persons to enhance their skills in a better way.

Prashant Kakode, Goa Cricket Association Member, said, “the new Panjim gymkhana will have a new swimming pool and a well -equipped gym with better facilities which will help the sportsmen in a big way. Also, the whole gymkhana in general will have better facilities and an added staff for the well maintenance of the gymkhana. The youth will obviously benefit from all these facilities and enhance their sports skills in their respective games.”

Kakode said that the construction of the new gymkhana will be a huge benefit for all the sports enthusiasts as everything will be put in place. Also there are few added areas for certain sports like table tennis. Also sufficient area will be allotted to play squash. New games will be given importance to enable the sportsmen choose what they prefer.

The old gymkhana lacked lot of facilities which are now being considered in the new plan. The new Gymkhana will also have more areas allotted to certain sports which are mostly needed nowadays. The plan for the new construction is also prepared to tackle the challenges faced by the old gymkhana such as time consumption of the sportsmen due to less space. Now they can practise and hold matches at the same ground without time consumption due to the extra space that is going to be allotted.

The maintenance of the gymkhana will be kept in mind to meet high standards and also guide the budding sportsmen. The infrastructure and facilities are, however, the main priority of the construction as it will boost the sportsmen ability to work hard in their respective fields. This will ultimate enhance the status of sports in Goa. The construction of new gymkhana will begin soon since demolition of the old office has already started. 

Kakode told Herald that the construction will soon start after the demolishment is completed.

According to the contractor, the construction of the new gymkhana will take eight months. A few more months will be needed to completely the club house, the contractor said. The foundation stone for the new construction will be done by the Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, along with GCA President Chetan Desai and MLA of Panjim, Siddharth Kuncaliekar on January 9.

 The new gymkhana will also boost the grounds for appropriate games. The government has already approached the Goa Cricket Association to enhance the ground and to rebuild the new site accordingly to make it appropriate for certain games.