ASHGABAT, Oct 20: When the then Prime Minister of Nepal Madhav Kumar Nepal was inaugurating a sports academy at Gauritar in Makawanpur district seven years ago, a central Asian country Turkmenistan also started a similar project.
The Gauritar-based academy was planned for qualitative development of sports by including training centers of all major games played in the country.
Just like in Nepal, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow inaugurated a similar type of ambitious project - the construction of Olympic Village - in the capital city of Ashgabat. Behind his motive of opening Olympic Village was a hidden ambition of developing the young country to a established stakeholder in the global sphere.
While the government of Nepal was planning to construct the academy worth Rs 1.05 billion, Turkmenistan started to prepare the Olympic Village with various sports infrastructure and facilities with a budget of $ 5 billion. The government of Turkmenistan had planned to finish the project in different phases in eight years. As per the planning, the first phase work was finished in 2014 while the second phase of work that began in 2013 was completed in two years. The third and the final phase of work is heading to the right direction and is scheduled to complete by this year.
Had the initiative of the then Nepali Prime Minister Madhav Nepal had taken a concrete shape, the Gauritar Academy would have been the central training center for athletes since the last two years. However, the supposed academy premises still does not have fences. The government has changed six times in Nepal since the inauguration and the academy has never been a priority to any of the successive governments.
Unlike Nepal, the construction work which started in Turkmenistan during the same period is in the last phase of completion. Turkmenistan is all set to organize the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in the same infrastructure next year.
The unstable governments of Nepal which change almost annually or even in less time, come up with a tendency of non-prioritizing or ignoring the plans of previous governments.
And many government projects of the country are facing similar fate as that of Gauritar.
In contrast to Nepal, Berdimuhamedo has been leading Turkmenistan as the president of the country since 2007.
Turkmenistan had started the preparation of the infrastructure well ahead of the 2010 bidding for the Asian Indoor Games scheduled for next year.
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Nepal has also shouldered the responsibility of hosting the next edition of the South Asian Games scheduled for 2018. However, with only 17 months remaining, not a single step has been taken in the direction.
Meanwhile, the Turkmenistan government has a long list of projects accomplished during the seven-year period. But the leadership of Nepal may not even remember about the projects launched by the government and the assurance they gave.
“We have often heard that sports is not in the priority list of government. But sports, in fact, is not only a means of entertainment but also a matter of national pride,” the then Prime Minister Nepal had said after laying the foundation stone of Gauritar Academy. “I promise to create favorable atmosphere for the construction of the academy and the construction work will finish on scheduled time.”
In the first phase of the construction of the academy, the government has planned to erect fences and construct football ground and hostel for players.
“Gauritar will be our central academy and the players belonging to any game will get a chance to hone their skill from this place,” the then Member Secretary of National Sports Council Jeevan Ram Shrestha had said. Shrestha is currently the president of Nepal Olympic Committee.
As per the master plan, Gauritar was supposed to be studded with swimming pool, football ground, multipurpose hall, administrative block, cricket ground, gym hall, judo hall, martial arts block, lawn tennis court, research block, special medical center, separate men's and women's hostels, recreational block, parking lot, huge water tank with processing facility among others.
But seven years have passed and it is still abandoned. Since the foundation stone of the academy was laid, the country has seen seven different prime ministers. None of them have done any work except for planning.
Contrary to it, the list of work undertaken by Turkmenistan President Berdimuhamedow is innumerable.
In the media forum last month in Ashgabat, Berdimuhamedow, who considers sports as the backbone of healthy nation, said, “We wish to present next year's Asian Indoor Games as one of the best sports festival ever staged. We are all set to make the stay of athletes from various countries a memorable one.”
Berdimuhamedow has various reasons for his claims. Under his leadership, the construction of Olympics Village in the 'White City' Ashgabat is in the final phase of construction. The village has a stadium of 45,000-seat capacity, multipurpose covered hall of 15,000 capacity, indoor swimming pool of 5,000 capacity along with outdoor swimming pool. A gymnasium of 4,000 capacity for combat game, indoor athletics track and basketball court among others expended in an area of 20 sq km.
The village also has a well equipped hostel with a capacity to accommodate 8800 players. Similarly, the media center can accommodate 1,000 reporters. There is also a 5-km monorail in the Village while racecourse for equestrian is outside the city.
Expanding the existing infrastructures, Turkmenistan also aims to host 2023 Universiade Sports. The semi-desert Ashgabat has turned into White Gold under the leadership of President Berdimuhamedow. The whole city is appears white with marbles worth billions of dollars, representing the white part of the country's national flag.
Besides white, the flag also has green color. Thus the Turkmenistan government is working to change the desert city into a green city and has planted numerous trees in and surrounding areas of Ashgabat.
“You cannot see single place without trees even if you travel miles around Ashgabat. The saplings are growing now” said one of the volunteer of media forum. “Ashgabat will turn into white city in the middle of green jungle in next five years.”
“Turkmenistan is a young country and it has been just some decades since we enjoyed independence. There is yet to do lot,” said 18-year-old Abdul Kharim, a volunteer who studies journalism. “We had nothing while we split from the USSR in 1991. But now we have one of the best sports infrastructures in the world,” he said.
AIPS Africa President Mitchell Obi, one among the 90 participants of the Media Forum from across Asia, Africa and Europe, held similar views as of Kharim. “Turkmenistan could easily host bigger sporting events like Asian Games and Olympics. The investment and love shown to sports by the government is impressive.”
