India's only Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra [Images] on Tuesday announced setting up of a countrywide chain of 500 public schools to impart quality education, training in sports and develop the overall character of the future generation.

Bindra said he always wanted to have a chain of  public schools and no time other than the present could be more opportune to embark upon such an ambitious project. The schools shall be christened "Abhinav Bindra Ace Public Schools" (ABAPS), Abhinav said adding he would personally oversee the performance of each school on a regular basis.

Dedicated to the cause of education, he wants to provide quality education under the banner of ABAPS with at least one branch of the school in each district of each state in the country. The motto of the school shall be "Fortes Fortuna Juvat", rendered in English it means, "Fortune Favours the Brave".

He said that there is no medal higher than the gold medal in the Olympics [Images] and the schools to be opened on franchise basis shall be second to none - English Medium Co-Education, Day-boarding & Residential Public Schools to be affiliated with the CBSE, Delhi [Images]. The architecture design, sports and other facilities, academic facilities and other related facilities would be  uniform, Bindra said.

Bindra said that they have written to the Chandigarh administration for land in the city where the first school is proposed to be made functional in 18 months. In case land was not available the school would be set up at Zirakpur - where his family residences, his father A S Bindra said.

The chief aim and purpose of the school shall be to provide a first rate education in order to create leaders for the future.

There shall be students' and teachers' exchange programmes with various institutions around the globe besides working in collaboration with some of the finest Academic Institutions in the UK, the USA, Australia [Images], New Zealand [Images] and Denmark, he said.

Students shall be encouraged to take up sports like rifle shooting, archery, equestrian, tennis, badminton and judo and the availability of coaching shall be a special feature of the school to world standards & equipped  to Olympic standards. 

The school shall have grounds for major games and state-of-the-art infrastructure  for indoor sports.