India is seriously considering a bid for the 2036 Olympic Games and would be able to host the event “in a big way,” according to Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.
“We all know that the slots are booked until 2032. But 2036 onwards, we have hopes and I am sure India will fully prepare a bid for the Olympics,” Thakur told the Times of India in an interview on Tuesday.
The likely host city would be Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat, and the government would throw its full support behind a bid by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), Thakur added.
India has previously hosted the Asian Games in 1982 and the Commonwealth Games in 2010 – but the Olympics would be the biggest global sporting spectacle to make its way to a nation with a population of around 1.4 billion people.
“India is ready to positively bid for it… I can assure you that we will not only host the Olympics, we will host it in a big way,” Thakur said.
“If India is making news in every sector from manufacturing to services, then why not sports? India is looking very seriously at bidding for the 2036 Olympics.”
In addition to India, numerous other nations have expressed potential interest in welcoming the 2036 Games.
That includes Egypt, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Qatar, Italy, the UK, Turkey, Denmark, Canada, and Mexico.
Russian officials are also mulling the idea of an Olympic bid for the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
Should that not materialize, Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said back in June that Russia would be happy to provide any experience it could to India, with Sochi having hosted the Winter Games in 2014.
The next edition of the Summer Games takes place in Paris in 2024, followed by Los Angeles four years later. The 2032 Summer Olympics have been awarded to Brisbane in Australia.