Minister for Youth and Sports Maheshwar Gahatraj on Friday assured that the Ninth National Games, which has been rescheduled for October 14-20, will be held on the allotted dates.

The Games have already been deferred twice owing to different reasons. The country’ mega-sporting event was originally scheduled to take place in March 2021 but was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The National Sports Council in April announced that it would hold the multi-sporting event in the first week of June but the plans were again postponed to October citing insufficient preparations.

“We will complete the selection process as soon as possible and hold the Games on the stipulated dates,” said the minister during the first meeting of the main organising committee of the Games.

Gandaki Province is hosting the event this year.

“The necessary physical infrastructures are being constructed in Pokhara. Although the sports infrastructures seem to prove insufficient for some of the events, we are doing homework to resolve the issues,” added Gahatraj.

NSC member secretary Tanka Lal Ghising, on the occasion, highlighted the need for unity and coordination among all stakeholders to successfully conduct the Games.

The meeting, chaired by the sports minister, also endorsed various decisions including forming an executive committee under the member secretary and 14 sub-committees to run the Games; involving 11 teams including seven provinces, three departmental teams and NRN; featuring 36 games (besides shot put and canyoning as exhibition games); and organising trophy tour in all seven provinces (including departmental clubs).

According to the NSC, a budget of Rs600 million has been approved for the Games.

Apart from the exhibition games, athletics, badminton, table tennis, cricket, football, tennis, hockey, boxing, volleyball, kabaddi, weightlifting, shooting, gymnastics, swimming, handball, judo, wrestling, soft tennis, squash, taekwondo, wushu, basketball, bodybuilding, chess, kho kho, karate, full contact karate, ITF taekwondo, sepak takraw, golf, archery, cycling, fencing, triathlon, paragliding and rugby have been included. All the events will have both men's and women's categories.