The outdoor synthetic athletic track located below the Yangchenphu Higher secondary school in Thimphu will be opened to the general public soon. The Bhutan Amateur Athletic Federation, BAAF, is working on a nominal membership fees for the users.
For now, the synthetic track looks ready for use but there are many works pending. The works on river protection wall will start from this month and will be completed by first week of June. The General Secretary of BAAF, Dorji Tenzin, said there are other additional facilities tied with the project.
“When we have such a beautiful facility in the city I think the greatest problem here is the need for proper sanitary facility such as toilet, shower facility and a changing room for athletes and the members. That we are going to start from fiscal year 2012-2013.”
He said though the Federation is not a profit-making organisation,it will charge nominal fees. This, he said, will be used for keeping the area clean and carry out minor renovation and maintenance work.
“We cannot leave everything for people free of cost basis; if we leave everything for free what I feel is free of cost facilities will not last long,” said Dorji Tenzin.
Schools in the capital have shown interest to hold their sporting events in the arena. To begin with, the Federation has accepted the request from one of the schools for free.
BAAF also has plans to encourage private individuals to make use of the track once up-gradation works of the athletic track are complete.
The track was inaugurated on 22ndFebruary coinciding with His Majesty’s Birthday.