MC gets on with work on stadium at unsuitable site

LUDHIANA: It has been a week since the construction of the new indoor stadium at Punjab Mata Nagar was initiated by the municipal corporation.
Interestingly, the site has been declared highly unsuitable for the stadium’s construction.
O P Bhatia, former executive director, Sports Authority of India (SAI), after conducting a survey of the land, had written in his letter dated December 27, 1999 to the principal architect that the piece of land was small and would not be able to allow the entry of fire tenders in case of an emergency and cater to parking.
Keeping these shortcomings in mind, the MC had chosen a different site at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, but eventually when the Ludhiana Improvement Trust failed to hand over this piece of land to the MC, it started construction at the old site.
The project was initiated over two years ago, and tenders were invited. A construction company was given the work, but with the Congress back in power in Punjab and S K Sharma at the helm of affairs as commissioner, the work was withdrawn from the contractor on the pretext that the stadium was not to be built at the given site.
Now the MC has restarted the stadium’s construction, a Rs 1.23-crore project, in accordance with a four-year-old tender but, interestingly, under a different contractor. Despite the work on the project hanging fire for over two years, no change was made in the site before giving the work to another contractor towards the end of 2003.
Meanwhile, organisations like the Volleyball Federation of India have pleaded to the mayor through written letters, urging him not to go ahead with the indoor stadium at the present site as it had been rendered technically unsound by the SAI, and would never be considered to be of the international standard.
Raj Kumar, secretary-general of the association, said Ludhiana would not be considered as a potential venue to hold national and international indoor games.
Mayor Nahar Singh Gill said the project had been initiated after a decision had been taken by the MC house in its general body meeting and as per the finance and contracts committee’s decision. He could not say why a new contractor had been handpicked for the job.
All the same, he clarified that the prices would not be revised and the contractor would have to complete the project within the limit stated in the initial price list quoted in the tender. Gill was also not aware of the Sports Authority of India’s critical comments about the site. He said the house had approved the restarting of the project on December 10 and the MC had got the work initiated.