kochi to realize the olympics dreams of the state kerala state sports council kssc has prepared a project named operation olympia to give adequate training to talented youngsters and prepare them for the olympics in 2024kssc intends to focus on 11 events including athletics badminton swimming and fencing and provide infrastructure and training to a select group of 250 students who will be handpicked for the purposeoperation olympia will target and tap potential of students and youngsters who put up good shows in sports we plan to set up olympic centres in 13 venues across nine districts a selection committee would be constituted besides ensuring facilities and training we will look after their education as well food and accommodation at par with international standards would be provided said kssc president t p dasanagencies and individuals associated with each event have been asked to submit a detailed report to kssc to promote badminton we plan to set up an academy under pullela gopichand in kochi similar plans are afoot in case of other events we have finished our plan in certain disciplines while the rest are underway we will begin the programme with projects that have already been completed operation olympia is likely to be inaugurated in september he addedkssc and state government will soon approach the union sports ministry to ensure that the olympics centres are recognized as national coaching academies once we get the nod our students will not have to go to other states and attend coaching camps for major events it will take some time to elevate our facilities and ensure international standards said kssc vicepresident mercy kuttan adding that other students will fly down for training if centres here gain recognitionin the run up to 2024 olympics there would be many international events such as world championships and the asian games so the children who join our olympics centres will have a greater international exposure in their respective fields this would help them to enhance their confidence and ensure peak performance said an official with ksscthere would be both shortterm as well as longterm goals for supporting the eightyearlong programme the state government has allocated rs 440 crore a ceo would be appointed to oversee the operation and fund managementa total of 49 coaches including 17 foreign coaches would be hired for the purposeacademy managers at each centre will individually be responsible to ensure that the plans are executed in a proper manner and they will be given a free hand in this mattera sports science division consisting of nine members would be made available to support the entire projectin the long run olympic centres will have to mobilize funds on their own preferably csr initiatives from psus though operation olympia will target 2024 olympics there is a provision to support athletes who can make a mark at the 2020 olympics in tokyo the government has earmarked rs 22 crore for this purpose