The Hindu : Front Page : Fresh impetus to construction of full-fledged indoor stadium

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Sunday, May 06, 2007
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Fresh impetus to construction of full-fledged indoor stadium

Syed Muthahar Saqaf

WAITING: The unfinished stadium at the complex in Tiruchi. — PHOTO: R.M. RAJARATHINAM

TIRUCHI: The construction of a full-fledged indoor stadium at the Anna Stadium complex, which ran into rough weather due to paucity of funds all these years, has now got a fresh impetus with the district administration submitting a revised proposal to the State Government and the receipt of Rs. 30 lakh from the Centre as a matching grant after a long time.

As per the revised proposal, the district administration plans to mop up additional amount of Rs. 35 lakh from the public for the execution of the project, which was devised way back in 1998 at an estimated cost of Rs. 1.67 crore.

The original plan envisaged that the Centre would provide 50 per cent of the project cost, while 25 per cent would have to be borne by the State and the rest to be mopped up from public contributions.

The State Government had granted Rs. 14 lakh for the project and a sum of Rs. 35 lakh was mopped up through contributions from the public. However, the project could not make any headway as necessary funds from the Centre as matching grant did not come through all these years. For the past three years there was no construction activity owing to paucity of funds, say official sources here.

The revised proposal was based on the original plan devised in 1998 and would not incur any additional expenditure, say the authorities here.

At present works to the tune of Rs. 35 lakh on this project have been completed. The sources say the State Transport Minister, K.N. Nehru, elected to the Assembly from Tiruchi - II constituency, has also evinced keen interest in the completion of the project.

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