Debre Tabor University, one of the 50 state universities in the country, has started the construction of a sport centre and facility that will require the investment of close to 60 million Br.

The construction of the facilities is taking place in an effort to enhance student skills as well as reduce stress during exams, according to Anegagregn Gashaw, president of the  University, which secured 1.1 billion Br in funding for the current fiscal year.

Resting on 4,000Sqm of land, the centre will be built inside the main compound of the University, which enrolled over 15,000 students within regular, summer and extension programmes in the last academic year. Established in 2008, the University has one academic unit of Medicine & Health Science College and five faculties: Technology; Agriculture & Environmental Science; Natural & Computational Science; Social Science & Humanities; and Business & Economics.

Abay Demise Construction, which was established in 2006, was hired to build the facility. Currently, Abay Demise is constructing the 1.8-billion-Br Debre Tabor Referral Hospital with three other firms and previously worked on Tana Beles Sugar Factory and Debark University.

MTT Consulting Architects & Engineers Plc, a firm founded in 2016 that has already worked on the construction of Debre Tabor, Wolkite and Madda Walabu universities' referral hospitals, as well as a branch for Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, is supervising the construction of the project.

The game centre will feature basketball, handball and table tennis courts in addition to a gymnasium, locker rooms, restrooms and shops. Designed to accommodate more than 2,300 people, the centre will also have a first aid office and store.

The facility might prevent the students from going to addictive places and minimise conflicts inside the University, according to Anegagregn.

The construction of the centre, which began four months ago, reached 30pc and is scheduled to be completed within a year.