Kalinganagar, July 2: In a momentous stride towards cultivating hockey talent at the grassroots level, the Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre opened its 31st Grassroot Centre at SSD High School, Gobarghati near Duburi under Jajpur district of Odisha on Tuesday. With the inauguration of this Centre, Jajpur has become the third district in the state to have more than one Grassroot Centre.
The inaugural event was graced by Rajiv Kumar, Vice President, Tata Steel Kalinganagar (TSK) along with Sudhir Kumar Mehta, MD & CEO, NeelachalIspat Nigam Limited (NINL). Among others present on the occasion were Debdoot Mohanty, Chief, Corporate Services, TSK, Mukul Choudhari, Chief, Sports, Tata Steel, Rajiv Seth, Project Director, Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre, Bhubaneswar and Head, Sports (Odisha), Tata Steel, Rabindra Jamuda, President, Tata Steel Kalinganagar Workers’ Union (TSKWU) and Jayram Mahanta, Vice President, TSKWU along with other senior officials of Tata Steel Kalinganagar, senior officials of NINL, officials of Tata Steel Foundation and officials of TSKWU.
Expressing his happiness on the inauguration of the new Grassroot Centre at Kalinganagar, Rajiv Kumar, Vice President (Operations), TSK said, “We are proud to be a part of this wonderful initiative to promote hockey in the rural areas. The passion for hockey in Odisha among the youth, is unmatched. This Grassroot Centre will play an instrumental role in developing players to state, national and international standards by providing them proper training and enabling them to derive maximum benefits from it.”
In his address, Rajiv Seth, Project Director, Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance centre, Bhubaneswar and Head, Sports (Odisha), Tata Steel said, “Our objective is to push as much talent as possible to the sports hostels of the State Govt and Hockey HPC in time to come so that we have the stars of tomorrow from the programme. We already have couple of direct entries from Grassrootcenters to our HPC too.”
The Odisha Naval Tata Hockey HPC inaugurated in 2019 is a Odisha Government initiative in partnership with Tata Steel and Tata Trusts. HPC has connect more than 3,500 young trainees in the age group of U17 in Girls and Boys Category with the assistance of 61 experienced home grown Grassroot coaches from Odisha in these 31 Grassroot centres across 13 districts in Odisha. The Grassroots Programme is maintaining a 60:40 gender ratio and are competing in invitational tournaments and bringing laurels for the state and ONTHHPC. It may be noted here that the 60
Technical officials trained by ONTHHPC over the period of time are now conducting state level hockey tournaments and a few of them are also conducting the National level hockey tournaments.
The Odisha Tata Hockey initiative aims to groom, identify and nurture raw talent from village level and make them efficient to compete at State, National & International level. The opening of this new Grassroot Centre in Kalinganagar marks another significant stride in Odisha's mission to cultivate a thriving hockey ecosystem and inspire the next generation of champions.
