BHUBANESWAR: Kalinga Stadium can become one of the top five stadiums in the world, said International Hockey Federation (FIH) president Narinder Dhruv Batra. He even termed Odisha as the ‘sports capital of India’ and expressed his confidence that this edition of Hockey World Cup will be a landmark event. Batra was speaking at the meeting of Governing Body for Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2018 at the Secretariat here on Friday.
The meeting, chaired by Sports and Youth Services Minister Chandra Sarathi Behera, took some important decisions regarding the city festival, opening ceremony and matches. Briefing the members about the measures, Department Secretary Vishal Kumar Dev informed a b o u t t h e arrangements. Hockey India has made all efforts for a grand opening ceremony on November 27 at Kalinga Athletics Stadium. The seating capacity will be less than 10,000 due to stage related arrangements.
Tickets for public will be available only online at www.ticketgenie.in. Further, there will be no pass for the inaugural ceremony. In view of the public demand for the opening ceremony, Hockey India has extended the World Cup celebrations to Barabati Stadium, Cuttack on November 28. Music Maestro AR Rahman will be performing both on the opening day in Bhubaneswar as well as in Cuttack.
Some prominent Bollywood celebrities are also likely to attend the c e l e b r a t i o n s i n Cuttack. During the international event, the Capital will witness a carnival like atmosphere. Dance and music festival, art trail, storytelling festival, food festival and many more such entertaining activities will be open for people to indulge in during the hockey world cup.
Termed as the city festival, it will be held at different locations in the city. Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi was also present. Traffic management, public transport and parking related arrangements were also discussed. The Minister expressed s a t i s f a c t i o n ove r t h e arrangements. Among others, Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary R Balakrishnan, DGP Dr RP Sharma, ACS Tuhin Kanta Pande, ACS Finance, Elena Norman, CEO Hockey India, Satyajit Mohanty and Commissioner of Police attended.