*LIRA* - The National Council of Sports tour and inspection of strategic sports infrastructure around the country saw the Board and Top Management (NCS) visit Lira City and make stops at the Akii-Bua Stadium and Lira University earlier today. At the construction site of the $129.7m Akii-Bua Stadium and multi-sports complex, the Egyptian contractor SAMCO's Project Manager, Engineer Mohammed Nazir, took the NCS Team through details of the blueprints of the design-and-build undertaking, as well as updated them on ongoing works.

The site is a buzz of activity characterised by graders, trucks and men on the move under scorching heat and clouds of dust, and Nazir revealed that earthworks were almost 100% done, that concrete works were to commence in a few days, and that materials for steel works had already been and were still being imported into the country. Addressing Board Members Moses Omara Anyii (representing the Chairman), Cecilia Anyakoit, Piloya Evelyn Gloria and Stephen Kiprotich, as well as General Secretary Dr Bernard Patrick Ogwel and his team, Nazir thanked government for the timely release of funds, and assured all that his team was working in tandem with Lira City Council to ensure that the project was in compliance with environmental and social safeguards.

At Lira University, a vast expanse sitting on an impressive 621 acres, the NCS entourage was welcomed by a powerful team led by University Council Chairperson Nelle Florence Okello and Vice Chancellor Professor Jasper Ogwal Okeng.

The Chairperson and VC were in full support of government's plan to construct a training ground at the University to support Akii-Bua Stadium in accordance with CAF requirements, a plan articulated by Dr. Ogwel during the interaction. Dr Ogwel reiterated government's plan to construct nine such training grounds, and that an MOU had already been signed and construction of a similar nature already started at Kyambogo University by the UPDF Engineering Brigade, with Makerere University on the agenda too.

He thanked Lira University's Chairman of the Appointments Board, Bosco Onyik, for having kickstarted the process of the progressively increasing sports budgets while still Chairman of NCS, revealing that the budget had now soared above a trillion shillings most of which was meant for capital development, targeting infrastructure. Shs 15bn would be set aside for the training ground which would be designed to fit into the university's already existing masterplan.

The training grounds currently being constructed within Greater Kampala and those planned for Lira, Gulu, Hoima and Masindi in preparation for the CHAN 2025 and AFCON 2027 football tournaments, are designed to have standard size pitches fitted with floodlights, perimeter fences, standard changing rooms, and a pavilion among other things.