BCCI given land for ‘centre of excellence’ in Bengaluru

The Board has gained additional land for a new NCA facility in the city, with the Government of Karnataka granting 15 acres on top of the existing area of 25 acres.

The ‘centre of excellence’ should be second to none, says BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary.

The BCCI's efforts to acquire additional land for a new NCA facility here have borne fruit, with the Government of Karnataka granting 15 acres on top of the existing area in the Devanahalli Aerospace Park region, on the outskirts of the city.

The BCCI had registered 25 acres of land in May and had originally asked for 25 more. BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary, though, was pleased that the NCA now had a total of 40 consolidated acres for its use in Arebinnamangala village in Bangalore North taluk. “I'm grateful to the government of Karnataka on behalf of the BCCI. They have agreed and have finally given us another 15 acres in the same plot, which means we have an amalgamated total area of 40 acres. Today was the final registration,” Choudhary told reporters here on Friday.

He added: “While the original parcel of land was aimed at the Nandi Hills area, this time around we started focusing on Devanahalli Aerospace Park. It's in a very, very developed area, vis-a-vis what we had originally intended to have. It's almost a rectangle which means it will lend itself very well to good designing of facilities inside that. Two sides of this rectangle will have a 45 metre road. So all that is developed area. We had actually asked for 25 more...we did not want to feel constrained for space at any point of time.”

Wait ends

This brings to an end the BCCI's long-running efforts, going back to 2005, to move the NCA out of the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium premises. “For the last 12 years, we had been waiting for a separate parcel of land for NCA and the BCCI had even paid 50 crores for this purpose way back in 2005. Unfortunately this had remained in a limbo and we began fresh efforts last year,” Choudhary said.

Things would move swiftly now, he stated. “I intend to draft a mail this evening itself, sending it to to members of the NCA committee, important functionaries in the BCCI and also the COA. Once we identify our requirements, we'll have an NCA meeting. We will then start the appointment of a consultant, which I would love to be one of the finest in the world, the most creative. Our centre of excellence, as we will eventually know it, should not be second to any. It should be a cut above the best in the world.”