Sports Ministry hikes boarding & lodging amount for athletes, team officials

New Delhi: Ahead of the Asian Games in China in September and the Paris Olympics next year, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has revised the upper ceiling amount of boarding and lodging for Indian athletes and team officials by 66 per cent.

This is for the athletes and officials participating only in international competitions, under the Ministry's Scheme of Assistance to National Sports Federations (NSFs).

Under the newly-revised norm, athletes and support staff travelling for approved competitions abroad (foreign exposures) will now be entitled to $250 per day, which is an increase of 66 per cent from an earlier norm of $150 per day.

The revision has been made taking into consideration the requests from the NSFs, wherein they have mentioned that rates for boarding & lodging fixed by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the competitions are higher than the existing ceiling of $150 per day. These norms for boarding & lodging were fixed way back in November, 2015, and it has been eight years since the revision of the same had taken place.

With the increase in the ceiling for boarding and lodging, the NSFs will be able to arrange reasonably better accommodations for athletes when competing and representing the country at international competitions.

Further, as per recent trends, the LOC of international competitions are offering a complete hospitality package to the participating teams rather than merely boarding and lodging as was the case earlier, the release said.

The package includes boarding, lodging, local transportation, and on some occasions entry fees as well. The total cost of the package is much above $150 per day per person.