CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, Feb 26: After two years, swimmers and aquaphiles from Ranchi will finally get a chance to swim in a swimming pool as the government gives permission to re-open all swimming pools from March 7. This will be the first instance that all swimming pools in the city will be opened for the public.
Swimming pools under the Jharkhand State Sports Promotion Society (JSSPS) which are located in Morhabadi and Khelgaon, Hotwar have already started to clean the pool as it is the training centre for under 14 and under 17 State level swimmers.
According to Umesh Kumar, swimming coach at JSSPS, there has been an increase in the number of swimmers post-pandemic. “Earlier, there were around 37 students including under 14 and under 16 whereas now we have a total of 48 students. The training sessions will be commencing soon as the pools reopen.”
The state-level swimmers have been practicing mostly on land and in some instances, they have been swimming in the nearby ponds or dams. “Since we have no proper resources or alternatives for practice, the students mostly practiced their swimming workouts in Patratu dam under my guidance,” the coach added.
Apart from academics, various hotels and resorts have also started to clean and refill their swimming pools for the guests. The owner of Moments Resort situated in Khunti Road said that it will help in attracting more guests. “We already started to clean our pools as soon as we got the information. In the past as well during the lockdown many guests were insisting us to allow them to enter the pool but we did not allow anyone. We charge around Rs. 350 for 4 hours to swim and also provide swimming costumes,” he said.
On February 25, the Jharkhand Government made the decision to reopen all swimming pools from March 7.
