Railways sanctions Rs 30.76 crore for building wrestling academy in Delhi

The railways has sanctioned Rs 30.76 crore for building a state-of-the-art wrestling academy in Kishanganj in Delhi, the ministry said on Friday. The academy, exclusively for wrestling, will be the biggest in the country equipped with advance training facilities.

"Indian Railways has played a paramount role in promoting wrestling in India and most of the elite wrestlers are from railways. Most of the medals won by India in wrestling in Olympics were from Indian Railways -- Sushil Kumar (2008 and 2012), Sakshi Malik (2016), Ravi Kumar and Bajrang Punia (2020)," the ministry said.

In the Tokyo Olympics, the performance of Indian Railways sportspersons have been phenomenal. Out of the seven medals won by India, three individual medallists -- Mirabai Chanu (silver in weightlifting), Ravi Kumar (silver in wrestling) and Bajrang Punia (bronze in wrestling) -- were from the railways.

Two players of the bronze medallist Indian Hockey Men team were also from the railways. More than 9,000 sportspersons are on roll in 29 game disciplines in Indian Railways.

Railways sportspersons have brought laurels for the country in all mega sports events such as Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games. Railways sportspersons have been honoured with 27 Padma Shri, 176 Arjuna, 12 Dhyanchand, 14 Dronacharya and nine Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Awards for their outstanding achievements.