IMPHAL, December 5: The renovation work of Khuman Lampak Stadium undertaken with a proposed fund of Rs 100 crores under the 13th Finance Commission has raised several questions.
Highly placed sources revealed that the Commission had already sanctioned Rs 50 crores in two phases for repairing works of the main stadium. However, there is no remarkable construction work taken up in the stadium, sources said.
Further the sources said that the redevelopment works include up-gradation of the sitting capacity of the main stadium from 25 thousand to 60 thousand, up-gradation of the hockey field Astroturf; replacement of goal post by international standard fibres and up-gradation of boxing arenas along with the seats etc.
Sources continued that, the hockey stadium has been locked down since about a year ago. On Inquiry, the authority concerned claimed that the closure is due to repairing work taking place inside the stadium, sources said.
But according to experts, replacement work of Astroturf of the ground does not take even a month, they added.
Sources also pointed out that recently, some contractors had replaced the Astroturf of the hockey ground with sub-standard materials. The goal post has been replaced with simple iron bars, they claimed.
They added that the redevelopment and repairing work has been assigned to the contractors of Manipur Development Society, MDS, which has little technical knowledge of sports infrastructures.
Alongside, sources further claimed that the Youth Affairs and Sports Department is neglecting the talented players of Manipur. They pointed out that hockey coaches are conducting practices on the roads as the stadium is closed. Players are facing hard time to negotiate with the restrictions placed in the name of security arrangement inside the stadium premises, added the sources.
The Khuman Lampak sports complex is primarily meant for players and not for the YAS officials, they said.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/12/khuman-lampak-stadium-repair-works-raise-questions/