Lalitpur, July 30

Nepal Taekwondo Association today acquired lands to construct high altitude taekwondo training centre in Dolakha district.

Sailung Rural Municipality Chairman Bharat Prasad Dulal handed over the papers to NTA President Prakash Shumsher Rana amidst a programme. As per the decision of the Sailung Rural Municipality, the NTA would get the authority over the land to construct and run the training centre.

“The NTA had requested us to provide the land and we discussed the matter in our meeting. We reached unanimous decision to hand over the land to NTA for the training centre as it will help our region in promoting tourism,” said Dulal.

“We cannot transfer the ownership of the land to the NTA due to legal hurdles but we have decided to give full authority of the land to them forever. Sailung is rich in Buddhism and tourism aspects and we want to promote the region,” he added.

NTA President Rana thanked Sailung Rural Municipality and its chairman Dulal for providing the land to construct the training centre. “We have been searching for the land for a long time and we had requested a number of districts to find it for the training centre. We visited the site after Sailung Rural Municipality agreed to provide us with the land and we agreed to work together,” added Rana.

NTA General Secretary Deep Raj Gurung informed the project would be completed in three years time.

“We have heard about the high altitude training centre for more than 15 years but nothing has happened in real,” said Gurung. “We felt the need of the high altitude taekwondo training centre to excel in international arena and started our planning.

Out of the seven phases of the project, we have completed the second following the acquisition of the land,” he added.

Gurung said the NTA would now sit with experts to prepare master plan. “We will take the concerned authorities and experts to the site before coming up with the master plan. We have planned to construct a fullfledged academy and training centre but the details about the project will be finalised only after the detailed project report,” he added. “We are hoping to get support from the government and National Sports Council and we will also request our international bodies for financial help to construct the training centre.”

Asked about sharing the training centre with other sports disciplines, Gurung said the NTA was open for all options. “It will be difficult for team game but I believe the athletes from individual sports can use the facilities whenever required,” he said.

“We can also invite players from other countries to train at our facilities along with our athletes. And that will ultimately be beneficial to our athletes,” he added.