Waseem Ahmad
BARAMULLA, Feb 24: An Indoor stadium in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district is incomplete even as five years have passed since the construction of the building was started.
The under construction building of the indoor stadium at Khawajabagh area of Baramulla is craving for official attention as the construction work remains stalled for last two years.
The work on the project was started in 2013, after then Minister for Medical Education & Youth Services and Sports, Taj Mohi-ud-Din laid its foundation stone.
As per locals of the area, the under construction building of the Indoor stadium has become a safe place for drug addicts and is used for many illegal activities. “As the building has been left incomplete, it has turned into a place where drug addicts and drunkards can be often seen. It has also become an ‘Indoor smoking stadium’ for students of nearby college who sneak into this incomplete structure for smoking purposes,” Ghulam Muhammad, a resident of Khawajabagh said
He said the stadium was approved with an aim to improve indoor sports activities in the district and to hone talent of youth in indoor games but unfortunately the construction work was left halfway.
Basit Ahmad, a kickboxing player from Baramulla said that due to the lack of an indoor stadium in the district, they have to travel to Srinagar for practice or matches. “There is no indoor stadium in Baramulla due to which we have to face various hardships for practicing. The indoor stadium if completed will not only help current players but will also boost the talent of players in the district,” he said.
Zubair Bashir Dar, Secretary, Baramulla Cricket Forum, while lamenting the construction of Indoor Stadium said that authorities have ruined the adjacent Professor Showkat Ali stadium by dumping the soil in the ground.
“The soil which was extracted from the spot where Indoor stadium is being constructed was dumped inside the ground. No tenders were issued for the soil due to which it was sold to the soil mafia and when we objected, the soil was later dumped in the ground,” he said. “If the issue is not sorted out to the earliest, we will come on roads and block the National Highway.”
Mushtaq Ahmad, Head of Sports Council, Baramulla blamed scarcity of funds as reason for the delay in the completion of the project. “The construction work of the project was stopped as there are no funds available. Its first tender was for the construction of floors, walls and roof and that was completed in 2015,” he said.
Mushtaq said the project was approved with an estimated cost of Rs 18 crores and Rs 5 crores were allotted for the first tender. “But further funds for the project were never released. Out of Rs 18 crores sanctioned by the Government, only Rs five crores were released which were spent on the first tender of the project and rest of the amount is still pending,” he said.
He, however said that the department is sending proposal for the second phase of the project which is yet to be sanctioned.
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