State-of-the-art Stadium with antiquated facilities

Prabhjot Singh writes from New Delhi

Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium, the venue of the ongoing 12th World Cup Hockey Tournament, has been a mute spectator to India’s emergence and growth as a host of major sporting events. When India offered to host the inaugural Asian Games in 1951, this Stadium was formally inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and dedicated to the nation.

Since hockey was not a part of the 1951 Asian Games, national Stadium was used for both opening and closing ceremonies and holding of track and field events. It had been a venue of many an international events, including the 1982 Asian Games and Indira Gandhi Gold Cup Hockey Tournament, both for men and women.

Renovated and upgraded at a whopping cost of Rs 266 crore, it retains the front portion as “Heritage Building”. Stands have come closer to the playfield. Seating has been reduced from 30,000 to less than 20,000. Besides, three new synthetic pitches have been laid to meet FIH norms. The second pitch is a competition pitch while the third is a practice or warm up pitch. For the ongoing World Cup only the central pitch has been put to use. It has been fitted with a huge plasma screen and two electronic scoreboards on either side of the playfield.

Formally dedicated to the nation on January 24 this year, complaints of poor workmanship, inadequate facilities and complaints of use of substandard material in the construction have already started coming in. Authorities may be claiming it to be state-of-the-art complex, but in reality it does not even meet standards of antiquated complexes.

The media box, for example, has no permanent electrical fittings for scribes to use their computers, laptops and other electronic gadgets. Loose wires and temporary connections provided to energise their machines can be dangerous. Even lighting of the media box is inadequate.

Movement of journalists inside the media box is cumbersome and difficult with hardly any leg space. Antiquated wooden tables, unsafe for keeping and using costly electronic gadgets, have been provided. There are no television sets in the media box and scribes cannot view a replay of an action in case they had missed noticing finer points of a move or a close finish of a goal.

So what is the state-of-art innovation in the media box, only SAI people can tell. The media centre and the media lounge located in the basement of the heritage portion of the stadium has no signal for mobile telephones to remain functional there.

The media lounge can at best seat about 30 people. There is no TV in the media lounge also. Two plasma screens have been provided in the media centre. Toilets in the media block have already started stinking. Because of some technical problem in fixing the sanitary fittings, one has virtually to stand over one’s own excreta while urinating here. Lockers in the media centre are antiquated steel boxes that need external locks. Perhaps the planners and builders mixed antiquity with modernity to call it a state-of-art complex. Facilities do not reflect the huge amount of money spent on its renovation and upgradation.