In what can be said to be a major enhancement of fun activities in the City of Lakes, this July will be witnessing the advent of water sports including Kayaking and Canoeing at Fatehsagar.

With the centre starting at Fatehsagar Lake, the training camp will also begin parallel in the first week of July. A survey was conducted recently to augment the available resources by the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Dilip Singh Chouhan, Vice President, Kayaking and Canoeing Association of Rajasthan informed UT, “This adventure filled water sport will be starting from July this year and in the initial stage we will be organizing a Training Camp at Fatehsagar to train interested candidates”.

He added, “A team of professionals will come to Udaipur; expert trainers selected by SAI will also be included in the team. Main motto is to introduce it as a sport and train students for Olympics and attract tourism in the city”.

When asked about what type of response the association was expecting, Dilip Singh replied, “As of now, no official announcement has been made regarding the game, still, we are receiving huge queries and until now we have received more than 150 enquiries”.

Earlier in the year 1986, a survey was held in Udaipur but was reported as negative, as all the water bodies of the city had low water levels.

12 boats have been ordered by the association as per specification of the sport, viz. 3 boats each for K1 and C1, 2 boats for K2 and C2 whereas 1 boat each for K4 and C4. These boats are specially designed for the game and are around 16 meters in length.

In the month of February, the Kayaking and Canoeing Association of India carried out a Survey in which B.S Kushwaha, Secretary of the Association visited Lake Pichola, FatehSagar and Rajsamand and formed a subcommittee to implement the activities in the State.

Kayaking and Canoeing have been included in the Olympics. There are various centres across India for the same, of which the one in Bhopal is one of the biggest in India. Other than that there are centres in Hyderabad, J&K, Kerala, etc.