IOA gets go-ahead for bidding to host IOC Session

The Indian Sports Ministry’s in-principle clearance is subject to requisite approvals by other authorities.

N. Ramachandran, IOA president, had put in a request to the Sports Ministry for its bid.

Indian Olympic Association’s proposal to bid to host the 132nd session of the International Olympic Committee in 2019 in the National Capital Region has been met with approval - in principle - by the Sports Ministry. The request was put in by the IOA president N. Ramachandran.

Saying that the union government was “pleased to accord in principle approval for bidding” to host the IOC session, the letter to the IOA president stated that it was “subject to requisite approvals from Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for political clearance and Ministry for Home Affairs (MHA) for security clearance and necessary approvals from host city of NCR”.

“This has the approval of Honourable Minister of State (I/C), Youth Affairs & Sports,” the letter from central government’s under secretary A. K. Patro stated.

Earlier, there were media reports that the IOA was keen on hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games after Durban pulled out.