The Pullela Gopichand Academy in Andhra Pradesh's upcoming capital Amaravati, will be allotted 12 acres of land, according to a decision taken by a Group of Ministers (GoM) on Friday.
The Times of India reported that the meeting of the GoM took note of 29 institutes, that have to be allotted over 1,000 acres of land, and added that the decisions have to be approved by the state cabinet.
This follows Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's promise in August last year, after the 2016 Olympics, that land would be allotted to the academy.
“In the new capital we have earmarked space for a sports city in which the academy will come up. It will be one of the best academies in the world,” Naidu had said at the time.
In 2003, when Gopichand was pitching his idea of a badminton academy, then-Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu gave him five acres of land in Hyderabad.
To Gopichand's student and Olympics badminton silver medallist, PV Sindhu, Naidu had announced a cash reward of Rs 3 crore, a residential plot in Amaravati and Group-I officer's job.
Last month, the ace shuttler assumed charge as a Deputy Collector in Andhra Pradesh, at the office of Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA).
She reported to CCLA Chief Commissioner Anil Chandra Punetha and later signed the relevant documents to formally join the service.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had handed over the appointment letter to her on July 29.
In May, the state legislature had passed a Bill amending the State Public Services Act to appoint Sindhu as a Group-I officer in the government.
As any recruitment in public services has to be only through the State Public Service Commission, selection committee or employment exchange, the government had to amend the Andhra Pradesh (Regulation of Appointments to Public Services and Rationalisation of Staff Pattern and Pay Structure) Act, 1994.
IANS inputs