She also announced the setting up of two state-of-the-art swimming pools at a cost of two crore rupees in Namakkal and Tiruvallur districts.

A nation's prosperity is measured by the achievements of the younger generation especially in the field of education and sports, the release noted.

To bring out the latent talents of sportspersons in the state, the Government headed by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has been taking various proactive steps like opening  sports hostels, providing top-class training facilities for  sportspersons, setting up playgrounds of international standards, providing financial assistance to sportspersons to take part in  international sports activities and constructing indoor stadia.

Giving a further boost to the ongoing initiatives, Ms Jayalalithaa has ordered the setting up of four hi-mast floodlights at a cost of 1 crore 56 lakh rupees at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Coimbatore to ensure that the stadium hosts day and night competitions. She has also ensured uninterrupted power supply by announcing that 2 new 75 KVA generators would be provided to the stadium. 50% of the expenses for this would be given as a subsidy by the Government while the rest would be spent by the Tamil Nadu Sports Development Authority, the release noted.

As ball badminton is a popular sport in rural Tamil Nadu, the chief minister sanctioned 10 lakh rupees for holding State-level ball badminton tournaments on the lines of the tournaments conducted by the Tamil Nadu Sports Development Authority with awards to be presented by the Chief Minister.

As part of her endeavors to prepare sportspersons to participate and win laurels at the State-level and International-level competitions, Ms Jayalalithaa has also ordered the creation of 80 new posts of sports coaches to augment the existing 139 posts on a consolidated salary of 8,000 rupees. It will entail an additional cost of 76 lakh 80 thousand rupees per annum for the State Government.

As an extension of these initiatives, the Chief Minister who is well aware of the importance of sports, has also ordered setting up of state-of-the-art swimming pools at a cost of two crore rupees in Namakkal and Tiruvallur districts.

These initiatives augur well for the development of sports in Tamilnadu and for encouraging aspirants.