LANGUISHING: The authorities are yet to find an appropriate occasion to inaugurate this indoor stadium at Bijapur.
The dream of sports lovers in the district to have a ready-to-use full-fledged indoor stadium is yet to be fulfilled as the stadium is waiting for inauguration for over a year.
Last year, the officers of Sports and Youth Services Department had claimed that the stadium would be inaugurated by the then district in-charge minister Govind Karjol. However, it was cancelled at the last minute.
The indoor stadium stands testimony to the “negligent” and “lethargic” attitude of the elected representatives in fulfilling the decades old demand of sportspersons and sports lovers in the district as it took 13 years for the district administration to complete construction of the stadium for various technical reasons, including scarcity of funds.
According to sources in the district administration, the proposal for constructing an indoor stadium in Bijapur was submitted by the then Deputy Commissioner M.R. Kamble in 1996. Although the State Government gave administrative approval for the Rs. 82-lakh project on February 12, 1996, it did not release funds.
The district administration began its construction in October 1996 on its own accord with permission from the Sports Ministry. It collected Rs. 22 lakh by way of proceeds from the Ranaji Cricket tournament that was held then and also managed to get Rs. 18 lakh from funds allocated under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.
With the available funds, the construction was competed up to the slab level and the work was stopped in 1997. Even after repeated pleas by the officers concerned in the district, the successive governments failed to release funds for a decade, sources said.
In 2006-07, the State Government revised the stadium plan and its estimated cost was increased to Rs. 1.5 crore. It released Rs. 70 lakh in the same year and the remaining amount was released in four phases, sources added.
With the amount, the authorities took up the remaining work which included completion of building, lighting, drinking water facility, toilets, office rooms for staff and dressing rooms. The stadium would help train players in table tennis, basketball, volleyball and badminton, sources added.
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