The Coca-Cola Aquatic Centre will be built at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), in line with FINA specifications and measuring 25 meters in length. The facility will be indoor, operational the year round and certified for national and international competitions. Presently there is no FINA approved 25-meter swimming pool operational at any university in Pakistan.
With the addition of the Aquatic Centre, LUMS will be able to develop teams in swimming, water polo and other aquatic sports, enabling it eventually to participate in international swimming meets for university students, as well as hosting such meets itself in LUMS.
The cheque giving ceremony for the Coca-Cola sponsored Aquatic Centre took place here on Thursday. Rizwan Ullah Khan, General Manager, Coca-Cola Pakistan along with other members of the Coca-Cola team was welcomed at LUMS by Dr Sohail Naqvi, Vice Chancellor, LUMS, and a cheque of Rs 22 million was presented to him.
Speaking on the occasion, Rizwan U Khan said, "Promoting an active healthy lifestyle is a fundamental tenet of our business globally, inculcating balance in our consumers' lives. The Coca-Cola Aquatic Centre is the practical embodiment of active healthy living and will provide the LUMS student community with state-of-the-art swimming facilities."
Vice Chancellor of LUMS, Dr Naqvi, while thanking the sponsors, said, "The Coca-Cola Aquatic Centre fulfils a long standing desire of LUMS students, faculty and staff to have a swimming pool on campus. We are deeply indebted to Coca-Cola management for their generosity which greatly contributes to the development of a healthy LUMS community."
Coca-Cola has previously supported LUMS in a variety of ways which have included an endowment fund for the National Outreach Programme for sponsoring financially disadvantaged students, and a Coke Learning Centre which is a partnership with the LUMS Rausing Executive Development Centre, for a series of programmes dedicated to building the leadership and business acumen of executives. The Coca-Cola Empower Lecture Series is another initiative that took place at LUMS which aimed at empowering the youth of Pakistan through a series of lectures by inspiring speakers.