Bhubaneswar, May 27: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today directed the sports and youth services department to complete construction of 100 mini stadiums by August.

The stadiums would be set up both at rural, panchayat and municipality levels at a cost of Rs 25 lakh each.

"The stadiums would be helpful for the sports enthusiasts, who can conduct practice sessions and tournaments to promote all types of sports. Work on 150 such mini stadiums has already been on, but we have set a target of completing 100 in the next three months," said sports minister Sudam Marandi.

In another development, the chief minister has also asked to increase the number of inmates at the sports hostels in the state to include more number of aspiring sportspersons.

At present, there are 1,010 sportspersons residing in the 15 sports hostels across the state.

"We have set a target of reaching out to 1,250 students, who can avail themselves of training facilities at the hostels," said Marandi.

Also, a sports climbing complex will be set up in the Kalinga Stadium complex. This form of rock climbing has been proposed to be included in the 2020 Olympics. Plans are also on to expand the shooting complex at the stadium. Last year, Naveen had inaugurated a 50-metre rifle shooting range at the facility.

The monthly aid provided by the department to the students will also be doubled. They will now receive Rs 300 instead of Rs 150.

"Discussions were also done on increasing the pension given to poor sportspersons. A final decision will be made shortly," said the sports minister.

At present, an amount of Rs 2,000 is being given as pension to each such sportsperson.

The BJD manifesto for 2014 polls had also announced that the government would construct playgrounds in all 6,236 gram panchayats across the state. But till now, works on only around 440 grounds have been over. "By 2017, we will complete construction of all the playgrounds," said the minister.