Sector 23 all-weather swimming pool to open from today for winter session
The UT Sports Department will open the city’s only all-weather swimming pool for professional swimmers and members from November 6. The Sector 23 all-weather pool (Government College of Yoga Education & Health, Sector 23) will open from tomorrow for the winter session. Like last year, the pool will remain open from 6 am to 12 noon in the morning session, followed by the evening schedule starting from 2 pm till 7 pm.
“The pool will remain open throughout the morning and evening sessions to cater to the local swimmers and members. As many as seven officials have been appointed to run the pool for six hours in morning shift and five hours in the evening shift,” said Sorabh Kumar Arora, Director, Sports.
As per the orders, the pool will remain open from 6 am to 7 pm and 3 pm to 4.30 pm for national and state-level professional swimmers, while the family time slots will be from 7 am to 12 noon (for morning session) and 2 pm to 7 pm (evening session).
The family time slots will be available for one hour for each member. Last year, for the first time the department had decided to open this pool from 6 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 6 pm (extendable to 7 pm, if needed) on all working days from November 1. Earlier, the pool was being operated from 6 am to 10 am and 3 pm to 6 pm in winter, including trainees’ slots for 1.5 hours in both morning and evening sessions.
The UT Sports Department operates over 10 swimming pools across various local sports complexes in the summer session, which had increased the number of swimming lovers. “The number of swimming enthusiasts has surely increased in the city, and people do come here in winter also. The extended hours makes it easy for them to come at any designated slot,” said a senior coach. As per the orders, the interested members have to take a prior approval from the officials to get allotment of their one-hour slot.
The Sector 23 all-weather facility in the absence of a 50m Olympics size pool in the city becomes an important hub for professional swimmers, especially in winter. Besides this facility, Panjab University has an all-weather pool, but it opens only for professionals and some registered swimmers from the university. In 2023, the pool underwent some repair work. However, the problem regarding availability of bathing water at low pressure in the changing rooms remained unsolved.
Seven officials from the Sectors 8, 34, 39 and 56, Lake Sports Complex and Mani Majra Sports Complex have been shifted to the Sector 23 for the next four months.
