Rakh Bagh shooting range misses the mark due to lack of upgrades

Ludhiana: The Ludhiana shooting range near Rakh Bagh is facing severalchallenges for a long time now. The facility has been strugglingwith infrastructural issues, outdated technology targets, lack of properpractice weapons and other problems. The sports facility continues to await its upgradation. .Officials from the shooting range have requested authoritiesseveral times for the infra upgrade. Finally the district administration is providing the required funds for the shooting range, but the renovation work has not started yet because of the delay in floating thetender. Sources in the district administration said funds had already been transferred to the department of sports, which will now get the work executed.Gurjit, shooting range coach, said,” We are thankful to the districtadministration, DC Himanshu Jain, for accepting our request for the upgrade ofthe facility. I request the authorities concerned to speed up the processof floating the tenders so that the project can be completed as soonas possible.”“Once there are all required facilities available to the athletes, I amconfident that they will get more achievements in their sport andthe training environment will also be improved,” he added.District sports officer (DSO) Kuldeep Chugh said,” The estimated cost ofthe project will be around Rs 31 lakh, including civil work, digital targets and other requirements of the range. The tender will be out in this week most probably and I will check once again with theofficials concerned to speed up the process.”The delay in processing the official work and long neglect has become amajor concern and the athletes have expressed their opinions about thesituation.“The range is facing neglect for a long time now. The absence of latestpractice weapons, digital targets, badly maintained infrastructure are someof the problems that are being faced by many shooters here due to which they haveto shift somewhere else to get the training for their shooting sport. Iappeal to the authorities to speed up the process as soon as possible," saidan athlete who practices at the shooting range here.