KOLLAM: Review committee of 35th National Games Secretariat, under the chairmanship of Manoj Abraham, who is also the Thiruvananthapuram Range IG, convened a meeting of officials concerned about the progress of construction of hockey stadium at Asramam. The hockey stadium being constructed at an estimated budget of Rs 17 crore was recently in the news over alleged substandard work and slow pace.
Besides the chairman, nodal officer of the Games Secretariat Shasheendran Nair, chief engineer N Mohan Kumar, executive engineer of BSNL, who is the project consultant, were present.
During the meeting, contractor C T Ramanathan & Co was given time till November 30 to finish the remaining work.
There are also plans to allocate some work to another contractor so that the work gets completed in the shortest period.
If the work is not completed before the inspection to be done by Indian Olympic Association, which regulates the games, the venue risks cancellation.
Mohan Kumar said that the pace of work has not been up to expectation due to rains.
“Only 80 per cent of the stadium work has been completed. The work of astro turf for playing hockey is separate and that will commence within two days, hoping it won’t rain,” Mohan Kumar said.
He also said that he was happy with the quality of work except in the case of boundary wall and construction in some areas in the gallery.
On the ongoing investigation related to the allegation of substandard material used for construction, he said that he was ready to face any investigation.
The officials of BSNL, the project consultants, said that the construction was done using ready mix concrete which is superior and costly than normal concrete.
BSNL and KITCO are two agencies in-charge of 32 stadiums which are under construction, between Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram, for the upcoming National Games.
It was also said that the slow pace of work was due to lack of good margin for the contractor who has taken up the project after re-tendering at the price set in 2010.
Mohan Kumar said that the government had earlier agreed to give an incentive of 15 per cent (of the total project cost) to the contractor if they could finish the work before October 30.
It was alleged that the compound wall of the stadium built at a cost of Rs 60 lakh had been constructed without using cement in adequate proportions and the wall was in a brittle state. Vigilance Officer of National Games Secretariat S Yogesh Yadav and chief technical examiner Vinod Mohan inspected the stadium a few weeks back to probe the allegation.
The team had found out discrepancies in the construction work and ordered the demolition of parts of construction which was found faulty.
The Chief Technical Examiner is likely to visit the stadium in the coming days as part of the probe.
Astro Turf
“The work for the first astro turf in the state at an estimated cost of Rs 3.8 crore will begin within two days,” Mohan Kumar said.
The construction of 9,250 square metre turf for playing the hockey match and for practice sessions is being constructed by German company ‘FieldTurf’ through a Hyderabad company Great Sports Infra.
Though the material used for construction such as wet mix macadam (WMC) and the turf was imported in February, it was lying unused in a corner of the stadium compound.
The stadium, which was a low lying area, had to be raised by around 2 metres using 5,000 loads of gravel.
Mohan Kumar said that the shortage of earth, rains and slow pace of construction of the gallery contributed to delay in laying the turf.
It will now take 15 to 45 days for the turf to be ready.