ROURKELA: Amid allegations of shoddy works, a delegation of the Rourkela District Congress Committee (RDCC) seeking to visit and inspect the newly-constructed Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium (BMHS) that co-hosted the FIH Men’s World Cup in January, was reportedly denied entry inside on Saturday.
The delegation comprising RDCC president Debabrata Bihari, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) general secretary Biren Senapati and other Congress leaders inspected the BMHS from outside and also reviewed associated infrastructure and beautification works around the stadium done for the HWC 2023 which concluded six months back.
Sharing photographs of the damages and cracks, Senapati said the newly-laid road in front of Gate 2 had caved in and developed cracks, while large portion of the new pavement in front of Gate 5 and many other places also got damaged with the paver blocks caving in.
He said, “In second week of June a statue of a hockey player had collapsed on the Dhyanchand road junction between the BMHS and airport while recently a road caved in and cracked at many patches leading to water-logging after rains. A newly-constructed boundary wall of a beautification block near the Dhyanchand road junction collapsed on Wednesday night.” The team also found the new pavement of paver blocks damaged.
He alleged despite prior intimation, the BMHS in-charge Prashant Tarai went into hiding, while the Sundargarh collector Parag Harshad Gavali and Rourkela ADM Subhankar Mohapatra were not responding to calls.
Damages to new works are testimony to widespread corruption in construction of the multi-hundred crore BMHS and other associated infrastructure and beautification works, Senapati alleged, adding, the Congress would resort to agitation to press for an inquiry after an emergency meeting on Sunday.