Bhubaneswar, Dec 13 (IANS): Odisha Sports & Youth Services Department and Tata Steel on Wednesday signed a MoU to establish two High Performance Centres (HPCs) in Olympic sports -- Archery and Sport Climbing.

The MoU was inked in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

As per the MoU, the state government in collaboration with the Tata steel will establish ‘Odisha Tata Archery Academy’ and ‘Odisha Tata Steel Adventure Foundation Sport Climbing Academy’ in Bhubaneswar for the development of athletes in the above disciplines.

“We are delighted to collaborate with Tata Steel in this endeavour. Our partnership with Tata Steel for Hockey High Performance Centre has been exemplary and producing encouraging results.

“We have a huge potential for Archery and Sports Climbing in Odisha and in the country and with this new association we will be able to collectively contribute towards creating conducive environment for athletes in these disciplines,” the Chief Minister said.

He said that archery is an ancient traditional game of India.

“There is a lot of talent among our tribal children and hopefully many champions will emerge from this HPC,” the Chief Minister said.

The sources said that Regional Development Centres will also be set up for archery in the state. These HPCs led by experts will identify exceptional talents through various grassroots programs and nurture them to compete at national and international levels by providing them top-notch infrastructure and training facilities.

Both these academies will feature players, scouted from the state sports hostels, state level and national level programs and they will have access to the sports facilities such as the gymnasium, swimming pool and India’s largest sports science centre at the Kalinga Stadium.

Secretary Vineel Krishna represented the Sports & Youth Services Department while Tata Steel was represented by Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services Tata Steel Ltd. and Chairman Tata Steel Adventure Foundation.