GUWAHATI: The Left Front government in Tripura will widen a road near the house of Olympian gymnast Dipa Karmakar so a BMW car, which was presented to her by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar in August, could be driven.
According to CPI (M) state unit secretary Bijan Dhar, Dipa had earlier requested the civic authorities to widen the road.
“I was told the road (near Dipa’s house) will be revamped following her request to the mayor and Urban Development Minister in this regard,” Dhar said. He informed that the government would spend approximately Rs.70 lakh to 80 lakh in the project.
Recently, Dipa’s coach Bisheswar Nandi had announced that she would return the car to the original owner, V Chamundeswaranath, who is the president of Hyderabad Badminton Association. Ace shuttler PV Sindhu and wrestler Sakshi Malik were also presented the flashy car by Tendulkar at a function held in Hyderabad.
Nandi had cited the issue of maintaining the car in a city like Agartala where the roads are narrow and allegedly not well-maintained.
“It wasn’t Dipa’s decision; rather it was a collective decision, taken by her family and me. Primarily, there are two main reasons behind it. First, there is no BMW service center in Agartala and
secondly, the roads are not suitable to drive a car like BMW,” he had then said.
If the comments about bad roads in Agartala had embarrassed the Left Front government, they gave the opposition parties enough ammo to fire at it.
Dhar said: “The decision to return the car was taken by the family of Dipa, her coach and their association. We respect their decision. But as we feel proud of Dipa, she should also feel proud of
Tripura”.
He added that there was at least one more BMW car which plies on the roads of Agartala.
Asked if the road near Dipa’s house is her only problem vis-à-vis the movement of the posh car, Dhar said: “I don’t know. We had no discussions either with her or her family”.
Dipa had narrowly missed the bronze by finishing fourth in the women's vault event at the Rio Olympics.