Nineteen acres of land in the heart of Puri. Literally seven minutes from the beach. And as you enter the Jagannath Cricket Stadium, which is a composite facility for sport with gymnastics being the other sport in the complex, you are transported to any other facility in the West. Clean with state-of-the-art facilities, the gymnastics facility trains kids between the ages of six and 14. And in the two hours that I was there , a couple of kids really caught the eye with the skill on show. By the time it was 6pm and the sun was just about to set, we decided to take a break from work and venture on to the beach.
This was our first break in days, and to come to Puri and not go to the beach would have been unfair on the team. The Blue Flag beach, May I say, is one of the best in the country. With a little more marketing, it is as good as Chennai or even the Bondi in Sydney. The first thing that stands out about the beach is how clean it is. No garbage, no littering, beautifully done up with benches and flags and the breeze that will give the best feel of nature, it is the perfect evening in every sense. And that’s when you see the Blue Crab and Nimantran, two excellent restaurants run by the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation. Sitting in one of the arm chairs of the Blue Crab sipping a virgin mojito and tasting some delectable prawns, it isn’t too far away from what we call bliss.
“We have plans of integrating sports tourism as part of the Blue Flag beach,” says Lenin Mohanty, Chairman of OTDC. “There is real scope here to do adventure sports also. We have families visiting and we want all of them to do some form of physical activity when here.”
A very hands-on man, he has a dream of making the Blue Flag beach one of India’s most-loved tourist destinations. “Sport is something we in Odisha take a lot of pride in,” says Mohanty. “Our honourable Chief Minister has helped us become the sports hub of India. It is only natural we integrate sports with tourism and offer visitors a package that they won’t get anywhere else.”
Sports like beach volleyball, which have huge appeal in the West and in the Olympics, should indeed be promoted in Puri. A mix of Sport, Food, tourism and culture, which includes a must visit to the famous Jagannath temple, could well give Puri an edge that no other city in India can match.
As it was turning dark and the moon was starting to make an appearance, the sea was adding to the beauty of the evening. That’s when we were served our last course of food for the evening – tawa pomphret fry, which I was told was a local speciality.
It was time well spent and a visit that could well be the first of many if OTDC fulfils its mission and makes the Blue Flag beach the go-to destination for sports tourists.