GFA involved now with Lusofonia Games football championship
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PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has now made it a point to take stock of the ongoing works for hosting the 3rd Lusofonia Games in Goa in November on a regular basis. Every second day he has been monitoring its progress, so far.
On Wednesday night, he began the inspection of the athletic track and other facilities planned at Bambolim at 11.45 p.m. and thereafter moved to Taleigao to acquaint himself with the work of the indoor stadium for volleyball and basketball. He left well after 00.45 a.m. Once the dome is put in place, which is the toughest job, all the other works will follow with ease and this has to done before the monsoon.
Since Parrikar is not seeking publicity, his main focus being on meeting the deadlines so that all projects are ready well ahead of the Games, he has been going around quietly, checking every detail, asking the concerned engineers and other officials to accompany him, even after a very hectic day at the Assembly.
Yesterday, he physically checked the concreting work of the columns at Bambolim as well as the hot mixing while at Taleigao he inspected the pre-fabrication work of the trusses. It is at Peddem, Mapusa, where Parrikar resides that he visits it last, making it a point not to leave anything to chance, since it is he who committed to host the Games even when the previous government did nothing for the past two-and-half years, except for bidding in Lisbon in 2009 and thereafter hosting several meetings of ACOLOP general assembly where the venues could not even be finalized.
In order to further speed up the pace, it has now been decided to introduce the third shift for the workers.
SAG’s Executive Director, Sandip Jacques, too has been moving at a very fast pace and that he has acquired a firm grip on the nitty-gritty of the gigantic work at hand can also be gauged form the meeting he had with Alberto Colaco, former AIFF general secretary for finalizing the modifications at Nehru stadium, Fatorda for hosting the football event. “Chief Engineer J Chimulakr, the architects and other engineers had a lengthy discussion on various technical aspects pertaining to the football stadium as per FIFA specifications, since the stadium could also be used for World Cup Under-17, if allotted to India, stated Schubert Furtado, Games football competition director, who was also present at the meeting.
“The Nehru stadium will now conform to the high standards and requirements mandated by FIFA, which were not there all this while. Modifications were the need of the hour. It is because we have to host the prestigious Games that we will now have a dedicated stadium for football, which is also what both AIFF and AFC want, so as to meet Club Licensing Criteria for the I-league as well as AFC matches,” pointed out Schubert, who was sure that six to seven nations would participate in the football championship.
“To carry out the needed modifications within the existing structure is quite a tricky job, unlike building something totally new. Yet, the engineers and architects are doing their very best, raking their brains despite the limitations that the structure offers. We discussed the matter this morning and by afternoon today itself, Chimulkar with a battery of engineers and others were on the site to finalize the plans. They are all working with passion, which is commendable. It is something for posterity, the biggest beneficiaries being the sportspeople and in this case, the future footballers,” remarked Schubert, who observed that it is now that the GFA is fully involved with the Games with the AIFF being the nodal federation.
