Himachal Government Sets Up Ice Skating Rink In Spiti’s Kaza Town To Promote Ice Hockey Among Youth

The highest ice skating artificial rink in Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of 3,720 metre has been set up in remote Kaza town in the Spiti area by the government, officials said on Tuesday (17 December).

State Agriculture Minister Ram Lal Markanda will be inaugurating the rink spread over 50 metre by 35 metre on 20 December.

The aim of setting up the rink is to promote ice skating and hockey among the youth, an official told IANS.

It meets the international ice hockey standards, he said.

He said a training session for ice hockey would be organised from 20 to 30 December in which 45 school students would participate.

The rink, some 350 km from the state capital, will be inaugurated by state Agriculture Minister Ram Lal Markanda.

Sub-divisional Magistrate Gian Sagar Negi told IANS over phone that tourists can also enjoy skating on the rink.

Locals, mostly youngsters, are missing no opportunity in getting their skates on the ice.

"For the past many years we had been demanding the rink. Now we are really delighted to see the rink and appearance of a thick sheet of ice everyday. We are enjoying skating and hoping to see more people," skater Ridhma Negi told IANS.

Authorities say caretakers sprinkle water on the ground of the open-air rink which freezes under natural conditions in the night.

The nearby hills of the skating rink are currently wrapped in a thick blanket of snow.

Himachal Pradesh also boasts of Asia's oldest skating surface rink in the state capital Shimla where water on the clay ground of the rink freezes under natural conditions in the night.

The idea of a natural skating rink in Shimla was developed by an Irish military official named Blessington who lived there during the British rule.

He had inadvertently kept a bucket of water outside his residence and in the morning found it frozen. That gave him the idea of a skating rink and he created a small one of his own.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)