KOZHIKODE: Work is yet to start on 10 of the 25 venues of the 35th National Games to be held in Kerala even as the officials have pushed back the date of the games by an year to December 2013. Documents accessed by ‘Express’ show that only 10 out of 25 venues have a completed status of 50 per cent or more with work not even begun in 10 venues including the Games Village in Pallipuram in Thiruvananthapuram.Other venues which are still awaiting commencement of construction include the Rs 136.4-crore multi-purpose hall in Kannur and the Rs 17-crore shooting range in Vattiyoorkaavu.The construction of a new pavilion at the Corporation Stadium in Kozhikode budgeted by the National Games Secretariat at Rs 18.5 crore and flooring works at various venues worth Rs 17.6 crore are yet to begin.The construction works at various venues have lagged so much that even officials of the National Games Secretariat are expressing concerns on whether the games can be held anytime soon. Kerala Olympic Association Secretary and member of the Games Executive Committee P A Hamsa said that he had asked the government to call monthly meetings to monitor the progress of the various works if it wanted the games to be held during its tenure.“No decision has been taken over by the Games Village which will take at least 1.5 years to construct.“If we move things on a war footing and decide how we want the village constructed and award the contract to a suitable bidder, we might be able to make it in time for December 2013. If the delay that is currently plaguing construction continues like this, we will not be able to hold the games even then,” he said. He also revealed that a technical committee constituted for the games was yet to hold its first meeting and that the Kerala Olympic Association had constituted a committee to discuss the work done on the games.The National Games secretariat has pegged the total cost of construction at Rs 82.8 crore.However, this is likely to increase with many of the works being re-tendered increasing the cost. The two works that have currently been re-tendered have seen a massive increase with the re-tender amount for the indoor stadium in Kannur increasing to 36 crore from 23.7 crore while acoustic works at various indoor stadiums were re-tendered at 4.13 crore from 3.5 crore.Four other works are currently in the re-tender process.
Comments
0 comment