KOCHI: The renovation work at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kaloor, in connection with the proposed visit of Lionel Messi and his Argentine football team in 2025, has landed the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) in more trouble, with a multinational firm seeking the authority’s intervention for release of pending funds.
The issue has blown up to the extent that GCDA remains answerable to various contractors.
Although then authority chairman K Chandran Pillai claimed that handing over the stadium to the sponsor never hurt the state exchequer, the delay in payments by Reporter Broadcasting Corporation has put the body in a difficult spot.
In separate letters sent to the secretary and chairman, in June and July respectively, the Bengaluru-based Indian subsidiary of Lighting Technologies urged GCDA to step in for the release of `3.68 crore due to it for “supply, installation, testing and commissioning of 2kW of LED lighting” at the stadium. According to sources, the sponsor paid the firm an advance of `2 crore.
In keeping with the contract signed between the sponsor and Lighting Technologies, LED floodlights of FIFA standard were installed. The lighting system was designed in keeping with the needs of the stadium. Each light can be controlled individually, making the system costly.
While awaiting the first instalment of the payment, GCDA pressured the firm to complete the work before this year’s Indian Super League (ISL), company sources said. Neither the sponsor nor GCDA has reportedly responded to any of the missives, they added.
Similarly, multiple companies, including those that repaired seating facilities, carried out compound-wall construction, gate reconstruction and landscaping, have payments due to them.
“It is hard to believe that handing over the stadium to a sponsor to facilitate Messi’s visit and violation of protocols were not intentional,” Kochi MLA Mohammed Shiyas told TNIE. “There is a clear conspiracy behind it. Now, firms that conducted the renovation work are seeking their funds. It is evident that the sponsor is an accused in several criminal cases and yet the then GCDA chairman, and former sports minister stood by the whole plan.”