CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, April 14: It has been over a month since the swimming pools in the city were opened for the public to use. The swimming pool located at Morhabadi football stadium has been opened for Sports Authority of Jharkhand (SAJHA) members but with limited slots.
Zeeshan Qamar, Director at Sports Jharkhand spoke to Lagatar24.com and informed that they have set very limited slots post covid for the members to apply for the pay and play scheme.
“Currently we have around 7-8 slots for swimming and each slot has not more than 25 members. We have been getting calls regarding the site not showing swimming in the pay and play options and that is because the slots are already full,” he said.
Prior to the lockdown in 2019, the swimming pools at Hotwar Khelgaon, which comes under SAJHA, were functional for its members and there were around 40 members per slot. However, since the restrictions were lifted in March 2022, the pool at Hotwar has only been in use by the athletes.
“The pool at Hotwar is managed by SAJHA and is a professional pool for swimmers. It is one of the reasons why it is exclusively open for the athletes. It is also under maintenance and is not open to the public,” the Sports Director added.
Another possible reason suggested by the swimming instructors is that the maintenance charge of the professional pool is on a higher side and it might be one of the reasons why it has not been started yet.
There has been no information from the director whether the pools at Khelgaon will be opened for members in the future or not.
