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By India Today News Desk: Madurai’s Alanganallur is known for hosting Tamil Nadu’s famous bull-taming sport jallikattu every year in January. The Tamil Nadu government is now building a jallikattu arena with state-of-the-art facilities at Keelakarai in Alanganallur. The arena will be ready for the January 2024 jallikattu. The Minister for Public Works and Highways, EV Velu, inspected the arena on May 7 to check the progress on the development work.
Speaking to the media after his inspection, EV Velu said, “The announcement for the arena was made on January 21, 2022 and 67 acres of government poramboke (empty) land was identified in Keelakarai, out of which 16 acres has been earmarked for the arena to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 44 crore.”
He explained that the areana would have a large sporting area, the vaadivaasal (main entrance), administrative offices, a space for tamers and the bulls to undergo medical test, first aid centre, media gallery, registration centre for bulls, changing rooms, cloak room, museum and space for temporary sales counters. There will also be stormwater drains, a fountain, artificial turf and a 50,000-litre overhead water tank.
The construction of the new jallikattu arena began on March 18 and should be completed by December 18, 2022. “To ensure smooth transportation, the link road between Thanichiyam–Alanganallur Road and the jallikattu venue that spans up to 3.3 km will be laid at an estimated cost of Rs 22 crore by the Highways Department. The works for laying the road measuring 10 metre in width will begin once the proposal is approved,” the minister said.
Jallikattu is an important part of Tamil tradition and takes place during Pongal (Sankranti) each year.
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