Karni Singh Shooting Range inaugurated
By Special Correspondent
31 January 2010. The reconstructed state-of-the-art Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range was inaugurated on Sunday. The range, which will host the Comonwealth Shooting Championship from Feb 17, was under constant media glare as construction work started late, leading to speculation that it was behind schedule.
Sports Minister M.S. Gill, who inaugurated the stadium Sunday, dedicated it to the nation.
Country’s top shooters preparing for the big international events this year, including the 2010 Commonwealth Games will make use of the latest equipments, at the National coaching camp in shotgun which is expected to commence from tomorrow.
A week later, training camp in pistol and rifle events will start from February 8. The core group of shooters that are preparing for the 2010 games, will get a feel of the equipment before the upcoming Commonwealth Shooting Championships beginning last week of February, which will be a real test for both the shooters and the organisers.
Earlier, the national camp for core group of shooters were held at Pune’s Balewadi Sports Complex. But now onwards, till the 2010 games, Karni Singh Ranges should be the venue for all national camps.
The 10-metre (centrally air conditioned) and 50-metre ranges have 80 bays each while the 25-metre has 50 bays. The rifle and pistol ranges will have a seating capacity of 500.
The earlier separate ranges for trap and skeet are now converted into new composite ranges with state-of-the-art scoring equipment. The shotgun arena have six combined ranges for both trap and skeet with a seating capacity of around 2000.
All the ranges will have electronic targets that will also have screen facilities to project scores.
The range is spread over a vast area of 72 acres in the backdrop of Adilabad Fort. All the ranges are equipped with lighting facility to provide 2200 lux of light for high definition TV coverage. There are automatic electronic scoring target systems and air-conditioned lounges of all ranges.
The construction work at the range began in October, 2008, with a financial projection of Rs 150 crore.
Even though core group of shooters will commence training from tomorrow, it is not known whether state or school level shooters will be allowed to make use of these facilities.
Ever since the construction of the ranges started, national level shooters from Delhi and its neighbouring cities who weren’t selected for the core group, have been struggling to train as Sports Authority of India (SAI) did not make any alternate arrangements for these shooters. indianshooting.com
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