The Hindu : Sport : New synthetic track: work at standstill

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Thursday, Apr 17, 2008
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New synthetic track: work at standstill

S.R. Suryanarayan

— Photo: R. Ragu

RUNNING INTO TROUBLE: The new synthetic track at the Nehru Stadium will take some more time to get ready.

CHENNAI: A new synthetic athletics track to replace the existing one in the Nehru stadium, which was expected to come up in the first quarter of this year, will take some more time to become a reality.

The Rs. 2.5 crore project which was given to a Hong Kong firm CNA associates had made a limping start a month ago but unexpected hurdles have virtually brought the work to a standstill. Much of the problem, it would appear, relate to the understanding of the work plan as laid out in the tender. According to an official in the Sports Development Authority of India, which controls the stadium, it had been clearly mentioned in the tender that the project was to remove the existing one and relay a fresh track with the material (Conica) made in Germany.

However, the SDAT authorities found something amiss. “Instead of taking steps to remove the existing surface, we saw patches of the surface removed at various spots where the damage was the most and the effort seemed to be to iron out those areas as against the need for total removal,” he said.

The Member-Secretary of the SDAT, M. Rajendran, after inspection, has sought a meeting with the contractor and the expert from the German company before the work proceeded.

“I hope to see them in the next two or three days. I do not see any major issue in this. It is basically to understand the work taken up so that both sides are clear of the job,” he said. “Once this is done the relaying work should start and be completed in 45 days,” he said.

Taking no chances

However, the delay and the need for early communication to the various athletics units meant that the Tamil Nadu Athletics Association which was to host the national inter-State meet (the last outing for athletes before the Indian team is selected for the Beijing Olympics) decided not to take a chance and shifted the June programme to Madurai.

TNAA President W.I. Davaram said “the Chennai track was fast and could have been helpful to the Olympics aspirants but it cannot be helped.” He said Mr. Rajendran was truly concerned about the track work and had sought a technical expert from TNAA to attend the proposed meeting he had called.

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