93 of the 425 Khelo India Infrastructure Projects Sanctioned Since 2017 Have Had Zero Progress
The sports ministry’s own dashboard lists 425 Khelo India infrastructure projects. Ninety-three of them have had no work done at all. Fifty-three are in Delhi, and fifteen of those have had their money released in full with nothing built.
93 of 425 sanctioned projects sit at zero per cent progress on the Ministry’s own dashboard.
Delhi is 53 of the 93 — 57% of every unstarted project in the country. Fifteen have had INR 37.73 crore released with 0% of the work done, including INR 13.57 crore for toilet renovation.
The mechanism is the same in every state: administrative approval granted without financial concurrence.
Every project figure in this story is taken from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports’ own Khelo India infrastructure dashboard, mdsd.kheloindia.gov.in, accessed on 31 October 2026 — the dashboard that written answers in Parliament tell MPs to consult. We publish its counts and its money figures separately, because they do not reconcile with each other.
| Khelo India infrastructure | Projects |
|---|---|
| Completed | 274 |
| Under progress | 58 |
| To be started — 0% progress | 93 |
| Total | 425 |
The government's own two halves do not agree. The dashboard's money page gives 349 projects, INR 3,175.07 cr sanctioned and INR 2,785.19 cr released — and a PIB factsheet gives 349 projects worth INR 3,176 crore as of July 2026. The dashboard carries no date stamp anywhere. We publish the project counts and the money pair separately, and we do not derive a single "INR X crore stalled" figure across two tables that do not reconcile.
On the timeframe: the Revamped Khelo India Programme was approved by Cabinet on 20 September 2017 with an outlay of INR 1,756 crore. Infrastructure entered it when the earlier Urban Sports Infrastructure Scheme was merged in, so there was no separate launch date. Sanctioned since 2017. Over nine years. The dashboard itself publishes no date range, which is a fair criticism to make of it.
Delhi is 53 of the 93 — 57% of every unstarted project in India
Almost all of them are repairs and upgrades to 2010 Commonwealth Games venues: Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the Indira Gandhi Complex, the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, the SPM Swimming Pool, the KD Jadhav Wrestling Stadium.
And fifteen have had money released with nothing built. INR 37.73 cr (USD 3.96m) out of the door, 0% progress.
| Project | Sanctioned | Released | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toilet renovation, Main Arena and KD Jadhav Hall | INR 13.57 cr | in full | 0% |
| False-ceiling replacement, Main Arena | 4.44 cr | in full | 0% |
| Wall cladding and painting, Main Arena corridors | 4.32 cr | in full | 0% |
| Façade stone finish | 2.56 cr | in full | 0% |
| Outdoor fibreglass sculptures | 0.43 cr | in full | 0% |
| Desilting of a natural lake | 0.31 cr | in full | 0% |
Sixteen years on, the 2010 Games still carry a live line in the sports budget: "CWG 2010 (Old Liabilities)."
The cases, with sanction dates
| State | Facility | Sanctioned | Money | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Himachal | Multipurpose stadium, Katasani, Shimla | Foundation stone 2007 | ~INR 25 cr spent; a further INR 6.5 cr now sanctioned | Incomplete after 18 years. The athletics track was dropped — the indoor building was put up in the middle of the proposed track. The contractor walked off, a retaining wall has collapsed, cattle and water get in. Villagers gave up land for promised jobs. |
| Nagaland | Dimapur Multi-Disciplinary Complex | Civil works contract Dec 2006; estimate revised INR 60.57 cr → INR 134.99 cr in March 2012, up 123% | INR 58 cr released 2009–13, plus INR 5.58 cr in price escalations | ~55% complete. Work stopped in December 2012. The original deadline was June 2009. The state has been trying to hand it to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) since 2023. SAI has not replied in three years. |
| Manipur | 300-bed hostel, SAI Regional Centre, Imphal | 29 March 2019 | INR 38.57 cr sanctioned; INR 11.14 cr released | 29% complete after seven and a half years |
| Assam | Synthetic athletics track, Tinsukia | Due July 2018 | INR 7 cr; INR 6 cr paid by SAI | An inspection found 10% of the work done. 86% of the money. 10% of the track. |
| West Bengal | SAI National Centre of Excellence, New Cooch Behar | Foundation stone 21 May 2022; promised open "before March 2024" | A separate INR 7.65 cr synthetic turf sanctioned 21 Nov 2023 | A boundary wall. Nothing else. The state electricity department has not moved an 11,000-volt line; the state says it was never consulted before the foundation was laid. |
| Tripura | Agartala international cricket stadium | Construction agreement 10 April 2017; handover due 31 July 2025 | ~INR 28 cr paid to the contractor under an arbitration award | Still incomplete. A INR 2.77 cr furniture tender was approved before construction finished. |
| Jammu & Kashmir | Five astro-turf grounds | Approved February 2019 | INR 27 cr | Two years on, work had started at one. Rajouri's venue was never finalised, leaving INR 5 cr idle. A separate line, "Enhancement of Sports Facility at J&K," carries a revised estimate of INR 6.00 cr and expenditure of INR 0.00. |
| Punjab | 3,100 village playgrounds | Foundation stone 9 Oct 2025; deadline June 2026 | Cost reported three ways — INR 1,184 cr (Oct 2025), INR 1,350 cr (Dec 2025), INR 1,500 cr (Aug 2026) | 250 of 3,100 complete at 4 May 2026. The deadline was missed; the target is now "by year-end." |
| Telangana | Four stadiums, Kamareddy / Sangareddy / Yadadri | Bichkunda April 2013; Narayankhed June 2013; Choutuppal Sept 2015 | INR 2.32 cr, wholly unproductive | Narayankhed never passed plinth level because financial concurrence was missing, so bills could not be paid. Cancelled December 2020. |
| Uttar Pradesh | Department of Sports, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit 2016-22 | 44 works, INR 226.37 cr | — | Four pre-2016-17 works worth INR 440.35 cr still incomplete at 30–96% progress, INR 244.40 cr spent, delays of 3 to 13 years. Fourteen works carrying INR 308.83 cr of cost overruns and 9 to 165 months of time overrun. The Lucknow velodrome abandoned after INR 51.56 cr. Works were awarded with no agreements signed, so no damages could be levied. |
| Maharashtra | Statewide | CAG performance audit 2012-17, tabled 28 March 2018 | INR 576 cr spent | "Even after incurring huge expenditure of INR 576 crore," the department could not create adequate infrastructure. The 2012 Sports Policy had no action plan. The department held 0.44–0.57% of the state budget. |
| Kerala | MRC Krishnan Memorial Indoor Stadium, Kasaragod | — | INR 29.32 cr | Inaugurated on 8 February 2026 before the works were finished, ahead of the assembly elections. Construction is now complete. The keys have still not been handed to athletes. No reason given. |
Who is responsible — the mechanism
Administrative approval is granted without financial concurrence. A project is sanctioned, tendered and started before anyone confirms the money exists. The contractor stops when bills cannot be paid. The asset decays. The audit arrives years later. Telangana's CAG finding states it outright.
CAG's 2023 performance audit of SAI found that across 128 projects worth INR 1,239 cr there was no requirements survey before approval, and no contracts or tender documents on record for the projects checked — with a four-hostel estimate moving INR 44 cr → INR 70.88 cr → INR 126.96 cr in three months.
And the accountability finding. The Ministry does not table project-count or incompletion figures in Parliament. Its written position is that funds are released "scheme-wise and not item-wise" — which is precisely why no state-wise lapse table exists. It refers MPs instead to an undated dashboard whose two halves do not reconcile.
From the Standing Committee, August 2025: INR 19.50 cr for play-field development left unspent "due to lack of proposal from eligible entities"; INR 38.79 cr diverted to SAI Centres of Excellence; INR 122.30 cr returned to the Consolidated Fund of India; SAI running with ~45% of sanctioned posts vacant. Khelo India 2024-25: budget estimate INR 900 cr, expenditure INR 620.75 cr. 2025-26: INR 1,000 cr allocated, INR 599.12 cr utilised as at 8 December 2025.
How it could be improved
Sport England makes a published business plan and a sinking fund a condition of any capital grant. Brazil's federal audit court audits sports capital spending as standing practice. India has neither.
Four things the evidence points to. No sanction without financial concurrence already in place. Tranche release against verified physical progress — which the electronics component scheme already does, inside this same government. An operating endowment alongside every capital grant, which is exactly what Nagaland lacks. And a dated, reconciled public dashboard.
The unasked question
Fifteen Khelo India projects in Delhi have had their money released in full with zero per cent of the work done, including INR 13.57 crore for toilet renovation. Who signed those releases, and who is getting that money back?