Chief minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday announced that Asian Athletic Championships would be held in the city in August next year.
In a suo motu statement in the Assembly, she said that the players from 44 countries are expected to participate in the event to be held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
She announced that the government has earmarked Rs 40 crore for the games.
Ms Jayalalithaa said that the synthetic track in the stadium would be relaid besides setting up of a new warm up track.
Apart from purchasing world-class equipments, she said that all facilities would be upgraded to international standards.
She said that the athletes taking part in the games would be provided with adequate facilities. She also said Athletics Federation of India is holding the multi-sport games in collaboration with the state government.
In order to promote sports in villages, she said that the government proposes to conduct sports event in 12,524 village panchayats at a cost of Rs 25.5 crore every year.
Earlier, she presented a special prize of `3lakh to K. Mala who bagged the silver medal in the Asian Weightlifting Championships held at Japan last year.