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India gained valuable insights for their intention to bid for 2036 Olympics after sending a delegation to the International Olympic Committee's headquarters in Lausanne recently.
The Indian Olympic Association president PT Usha, sports secretary Hari Ranjan Rao and Gujarat's minister of state for sports Harsh Sanghavi were part of the delegation who held meetings with IOC officials.
During the two-day trip that concluded on July 1, Usha also net new IOC president Kirsty Coventry and reportedly discussed the way forward for India towards officially submitting a bid after showing intent to host last year.
"Even though there is a pause on the process but from our end, a letter of intent has been submitted (last year). The delegation met IOC officials and sought guidance for the way forward. It was more about understanding the procedure. There was no bid presentation as such," a sports ministry source told PTI.
The delegation flew to Lausanne even though the IOC has paused the bid process though the trip was deemed fruitful as they came back with good insights into the entire process.
Coventry announced halting of the bid process in her first media interaction since taking over, saying that member countries wanted a discussion on the timing of the announcement of the new host.
An IOC working group will review previous bid winners' experience and formulate a process that would be readily acceptable to its members associations.
India plans to host the mega event in Ahmedabad and has set plans to launch a huge infrastructural push in anticipation of stiff competition from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia.
Earlier the IOC was expected to announce the host in 2026 but after putting a stop to the entire process, it is anticipated that a decision on the 2036 host would take much longer time.
The sports ministry will host an enclave between July 18 and 20 to bring all stakeholders under one roof for discussion after unveiling a new national sports policy.
