GULBARGA: Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey on Saturday asked the Karnataka Land Army Corporation (KLAC) to speed up construction of swimming pool at the Chandrasekhar Patil Stadium complex.

Mr. Pandey was chairing a meeting of senior officials along with the representatives from KLAC about the progress of the project. He said the progress of the work, taken up in August 2004, appeared to be slow.

The original estimate of the project consisting of a race pool, diving and warm up pool and a children's swimming pool with galleries and restaurant block was put at Rs. 1.37 crore. But the cost has escalated to Rs. 1.87 crore.

The swimming race pool itself would cost Rs. 86.52 lakh, diving and warm up pool Rs. 38.58 lakh, restaurant and office block Rs. 8.56 lakh and children's swimming pool Rs. 7.65 lakh. The water purification plant would cost Rs. 46.42 lakh.

The officials of the Department of Youth Services and Sports told the meeting that the proposal seeking Rs. 60 lakh from the Centre had been submitted, but so far the Centre had not yet released funds.

As per the project details, the Government should have provided 50 per cent of the cost of the project, which is Rs. 60 lakh of the original estimate of the project. Even this amount had not been released. This had delayed the execution of the project.

The Deputy Commissioner said in this year's budget Rs. 60 lakh had been allocated for the swimming pool complex in Gulbarga and the State Government would soon release the amount. He would take up the issue with the Centre for the early release of funds.

While KLAC officials said they had incurred an expenditure of Rs. 65 lakh on the project, the officials of the Youth affairs and Sports Department told the meting that the KLAC had been paid Rs. 57 lakh both in the form of cash and foodgrains.

While Rs. 37.50 lakh had been released in the form of cash, foodgrains estimated Rs. 20 lakh had been provided to the KLAC for taking up the work.

The officials said Rs. 37.50 lakh released by the district administration for the work had been pooled from different agencies and funds donated by government agencies.

Apart from this, the district administration proposed to impress upon MPs from Gulbarga district to release Rs. 5 lakh each from their MP's Local Area Development Fund for the project. It proposed to collect Rs. 5 lakh each from Chandrasekhar Patil Revoor, Gulbarga MLA, and MLCs Shashil G. Namoshi and Amatappa Kandakur.

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