Thane’s Pramod Shinde develops a lavish 10-acre sports complex

E-prashala Sports Complex, developed by Pramod Shinde, is one of the upcoming sporting facilities in Shirol, Maharashtra. Spread over a sprawling area of 10 acres, the sports complex houses a lush green ground for cricket and has plans to develop a badminton court and fields for hockey, football, lawn tennis, volleyball, kabaddi, and kho-kho. Apart from the outdoor games, you can enjoy table tennis, carrom, pool, and chess at the sports complex.
Pramod Shinde, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from Thane, is the man behind E-prashala Sports Complex. Shinde says, “E-prashala Sports Complex is a CSR initiative of our organisation, E-prashala, which aims at providing digital education to needy students. E-prashala was started in 2009, and since then, we have served over 50 lakh students across India.”

In 2020, when the world was grappling with COVID-19, Shinde decided to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Due to the pandemic, all the schools were shut, which meant E-prashala could venture into something new. Shinde avers, “I feel that sports also form part of education. I thought of starting a sports complex to provide state-of-the-art sporting facilities to children in remote areas. The work started in September 2020. Travelling up and down from Thane to Shirol, where the sports complex is located, was not feasible. So my family and I decided to live in a container at the location. We stayed there for six months.”

Due to the lockdown, there was a shortage of workers. However, Shinde, unscathed by this fact, took the locals in confidence and sought their help to develop the sports complex. Shinde recalls, “Through E-prashala, I got to work at the grassroots and interact with the people in rural areas. Since we knew each other well, they came to my help, and we built the sports complex brick-by-brick together.”

Shinde adds, “There is a lot of young talent in our country. We can develop great athletes if the children are given the right direction and their energies are channelised properly. Though they are talented, there is always a possibility of them getting addicted to vices due to their surroundings. I wanted these children to stay away from addictions and play as many sports as they want free of cost.”

So, if you are looking for a classic coalescence of leisure and sports, then E-prashala Sports Complex could be your go-to place. You can enjoy a beautiful day of cricket in this sports complex, nestled in nature’s lap. After a long and tiring day on the field, you can also relax in its plush cottages.

The children residing near the sports complex use the facilities. Additionally, sports academies and teams conduct practice sessions in the sports complex. Shinde states, “My dream is to develop E-prashala Sports Complex on similar lines to Pune’s Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex. I want multiple sports under one roof and encourage the young generation to take sports seriously.”