Beyond Spirituality: Gaya Emerges as Sporting Destination Through Khelo India Games
Gaya is known all over the world as the land of salvation, spirituality and meditation. But under the great vision of Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar to promote sports in Bihar, after various sports competitions organized here under Khelo India Youth Games 2025, this holy land is now also known as an excellent venue for sports.
Young players from more than one and a half dozen states came here in this summer of sports. The historical event of sports along with the spiritual atmosphere of Gaya has left an indelible mark on their minds. A total of seven games, swimming, kho-kho, thangat, yoga, gatka, malkham and kalaripattu were organized in the campus of IIM Institute in Gaya and Bipart of Gaya, Bodhgaya. All the games have concluded on 14 August.
No such big sports competition was organized in Gaya before this. Every year in November-December, Buddhists from all over the world gather at this place of Buddhist philosophy and knowledge of Lord Buddha. Apart from this, a large number of monks, monks and followers of Buddha from many countries, especially Buddhist countries, keep coming here. On the occasion of Pitru Paksha, people from all over the world come here and offer Pind Daan for the peace of the souls of their ancestors. But this grand event of Khelo India introduced this historic city to a new crowd of spectators and players from the point of view of sports, which was unique in itself.
Mritunjay Kumar, a big hotel operator of Gaya, said that there is a constant flow of tourists and pilgrims in Gaya and Bodh Gaya, but Khelo India has brought a new crowd of people here. A hotel operator Surendra Kumar also believes the same. He said that with the start of such events, the city has got a different identity at the national level and this has brought a different group of people to come here, in which the number of youth is in majority. This will accelerate the economic activity here. Hotels, restaurants, local small shopkeepers, tour operators and taxi drivers have made a lot of money due to this event. This time their earnings on the occasion of Buddha Purnima have increased two to three times. The local businessmen and people here are talking about organizing such events here often.
Bipart's sports complex is of national level
There is no separate or special big and permanent infrastructure for sports on this spiritual land. But there is a magnificent and modern sports complex in Bipart (Bihar Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development), a world-class training center for officials, officers, employees of all categories and public representatives. Swimming, Kho-Kho, Thangta, Yoga, Gatka, Malkham and Kalaripayattu games were organized here under Khelo India. The sports complex built in Bipart Institute, especially its swimming pool, is of international level. It has been arranged in a slightly modern way and made suitable for the Khelo India competition. This is the reason why it was possible to organize competitions related to Khelo India here.
There is a 10.5 acre ground right behind the Bipart main building complex, which has been specially prepared for the sports complex. Apart from a small football ground, it also has facilities like cycling track, jogging track, a special sprinted track for 100 meter and 200 meter races, volleyball, basketball, lawn tennis court etc. The biggest feature here is the presence of an Olympic size swimming pool, which makes this sports complex very special. The 30 meter long magnificent swimming pool built here completely meets all the international standards. In this pool, the water temperature can be maintained according to the weather. Before the Khelo India event, it was prepared in a much better way, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar. All types of swimming competitions were conducted in this modern swimming pool. In future, this swimming pool will emerge as a standard on the national stage for organizing swimming competitions.
Apart from this, an indoor sports stadium is also present in the campus of Bipart, which has been named Major Dhyanchand Sports Complex. Apart from indoor games like badminton, table tennis, snooker, it also has a 10 meter air pistol shooting range. All these are also of high quality. In the coming few months, the facility of horse riding will also be restored here.
A national level institute IIM is also present on Dobhi NH in Bodh Gaya. Competitions like Maskham, Yogasana are being organized by installing German hangars in its large campus. Despite there being no solid infrastructure for sports here, competitions are being conducted comfortably by installing German hangars due to sufficient space. Excellent arrangements for the stay of players coming from different states have been made in various hotels or government rest houses. AC buses were arranged to travel to and from the sports venue. The players coming here were always ready to come to Bihar, especially Gaya or Bodh Gaya.
Players of Bihar showed their strength
In the Gatka competition organized in Bpart of Bodh Gaya under Khelo India Youth Games, the Bihar team won the maximum number of 9 medals. This is a record in itself. Apart from this, Bihar has also won some medals in some other competitions including yoga held here. This is incredible in itself.
