Four-time world billiards champion Michael Ferreira and mountaineer H P S Ahluwalia will head the selection committees to choose the winners of this year's Arjuna and Dronacharya awards.

A sports ministry notification to this effect was issued in New Delhi on Thursday.

While Ferreira will head the committee for the Dronacharya Award, Ahluwalia be in charge of the one that will select sportspersons for the Arjuna and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awards.

A source in the ministry said the government had issued a notification and written to everybody. The awards will be conferred on September 31. The ministry has already received several nominations from various federations.

Each committee will have 15 members, including 12 eminent sportspersons and three officials. The three officials -- director general of the Sports Authority of India and a joint secretary and deputy secretary from the ministry -- will be on both committees.