'Physical infrastructure issue will not affect SAG'

Pokhara –National Sports Council's member-secretary Keshab Kumar Bista has said the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) scheduled to be held in Nepal would not be affected due to physical infrastructure issues. 

During a press meet organised by the Sports Journalists Forum, Kaski here today, he demanded sufficient budget allocation from the government to host the regional event successfully. He took the time to call on the government to invest in constructions of adequate sport infrastructure. 

     
In his remarks on the achievement of Nepali paragliding team that returned home with a silver medal from the recent 18th Asian Games in Indonesia, ending the medal drought in the event, he said the success was possible when there lacked adequate infrastructure and State's support to promote paragliding. 

As he stated, Rs three million has been allocated for building infrastructure in view of the International Paragliding Tournament to be held in Pokhara in coming November. He sought the State's special priority to promote sports as it was directly linked with the prestige of any country. According to him, so far over Rs two billion has been invested to build infrastructure as part of preparations for the SAG and the construction of a well-equipped stadium in Pokhara had already begun at the cost of Rs 1.29 billion. 

As per the decision of the South Asian Olympic Council, Nepal is to host the 13th edition of the SAG in March next year.---