SAI Center List: How to Find Your Sport and Your State

The SAI official portal lists every active Training Center: 68 STCs, 26 Extension Centers, 23 NCOEs. But a list of names and locations is not what a family needs. What you need to know is which center covers your child’s sport, whether it is currently taking new athletes and whether the coaching there is worth the commitment.

This article shows how to use the official SAI portal to find that information and how to verify what you find before making any decision.

Where to find the official list

The authoritative source for SAI center information is sai.gov.in and sportsauthorityofindia.nic.in. The center listing is under the Training Programs section. Because centers open, close and change their sport offerings as infrastructure and funding change, this is the only list that should be treated as current.

Third-party aggregators and news articles list SAI centers but typically reflect a snapshot from whenever they were published. The SAI portal is updated when programs change. It is the source.

How SAI centers are organized by region

SAI operates through regional centers. The country is divided into zones, each with a regional center that coordinates the STCs, Extension Centers and NCOEs within it:

• North Zone: Regional Center in Delhi, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium complex
• South Zone: Regional Center in Bangalore
• East Zone: Regional Center in Kolkata
• West Zone: Regional Center in Mumbai
• Central Zone: Regional Center in Bhopal
• North West Zone: National Institute of Sports (NIS) in Patiala serves as the primary facility

The regional center is your first contact point if the specific center you are trying to reach is not listed with current contact details. Regional offices can confirm which STCs under their zone are running trials, which sports are available and the current contact for each center director.

Centers with long-established programs

Several SAI facilities have operated continuously for decades. These are reliable starting points for the sports they cover:

NIS Patiala (Punjab): The flagship SAI facility. Home to the National Institute of Sports, the country’s premier coaching qualification program. Active programs in athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, shooting and several other disciplines. Athletes from North India competing in these sports typically look here first.

JLN Complex, Delhi: Major athletics and aquatics programs. Multiple national-level squads train here. The North Zone Regional Center operates from this complex.

SAI STC Bangalore: Multi-sport center under the South Zone. Covers a range of disciplines and serves as the primary SAI facility for athletes in southern states.

SAI STC Bhopal: Active under the Central Zone. Known for hockey programs among others. Central Zone centers serve athletes from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and surrounding states.

SAI STC Lucknow: Major center for North India athletes outside Punjab and Haryana. Multiple disciplines run from this facility.

SAI programs in Imphal, Manipur: Manipur’s athletes have produced a disproportionate number of India’s elite weightlifters and boxers. Mirabai Chanu’s development as a weightlifter ran through the SAI training infrastructure at Khuman Lampak Sports Complex in Imphal, a documented pathway that others in the state have followed. SAI presence in Imphal has supported this pipeline for decades.

These are examples, not a complete list. Current program availability at each center must be verified at the time of inquiry.

How to read the SAI center listing

When you look at the portal listing for your state, check four things:

Sport: Each center listing specifies which disciplines it runs. If your child’s sport is not in a center’s list, that center cannot help regardless of how close it is.

Type: STC (residential), Extension Center (non-residential) or NCOE (national level). The type determines what commitment and eligibility is required.

Contact: Some listings include the center director’s contact details. Others list only the regional center number. If the direct contact is not current, the regional center is the intermediary.

Active intake: The portal does not always mark whether a center is currently recruiting. Direct contact is the only reliable way to confirm current intake status.

The contact sequence

1. Find the nearest center for your child’s sport at sai.gov.in under Training Programs
2. If a direct contact is listed, call or email and ask: Is the program for [sport] currently running trials? When is the next trial? What are the eligibility criteria?
3. If the direct contact is not listed or not responsive, contact the Regional Center for your zone and ask to be directed to the right coordinator
4. Confirm before any travel: trial date, eligibility requirements and documents needed

Trial windows are often short and not widely advertised. Once you have identified the right center, staying in regular contact with the center coordinator is how you find out when trials are scheduled. Do not assume that because a center lists your child’s sport it is currently running an active trial cycle. Ask.