DW BUREAU / LUDHIANA Punjab Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu today laid the foundation stone of a sports park for the people residing in and around the Haibowal Dairy Complex area. He was also accompanied by Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu, besides several others. While speaking on the occasion, Bharat Bhushan Ashu informed that this sports park is being developed on 2 acres of land with a cost of Rs 50 lakh. He said that the work of this sports park would be completed in the next 3 months and would have proper fencing, lights, sports grounds and proper grass for children to play. He said that almost all existing sports infrastructure in Ludhiana is in the process of getting upgraded. This includes a new athletics synthetic track at Guru Nanak Stadium, while work on an indoor swimming pool would also start shortly. He said that the indoor swimming pool at Rakh Bagh has been a long pending demand of the city residents, and the work on it would commence shortly. Other sports infrastructure to be upgraded included the Shastri Hall, Basketball stadium, Table Tennis stadium, hockey astroturf at PAU, besides all others. He said that for increasing green cover and contributing in saving our environment along with promoting sports amongst our youth, several new green belts and leisure valleys have already been developed on more than 50 acres of area in Ludhiana city alone, while many more are either under construction or in pipeline. The Cabinet Minister said that dedicated efforts are being made to increase green cover in the city. He also directed MC officials to undertake a massive plantation drive on vacant land in the city for making Ludhiana greener. He said that a green belt has been developed in the Sidhwan Canal waterfront project, a leisure valley has been developed opposite DAV Public School in Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar along with several other green belts and parks in the area, another leisure valley on 6 acre land is under construction in Haibowal, a leisure valley in Ludhiana (East), green belts are being developed properly on both sides of old GT Road, starting from Sherpur Chowk till Jalandhar Byepass chowk, to name a few. (editor@dailyworld.in)