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PANJIM: The State received green light from the Central Sports Ministry for the construction various sports prjects including an additional Hockey Astro-turf at the Sports Complex Peddem earlier this week.
The two hockey grounds in Goa will not only improve the sport in the State but also bring in more revenue to Goa’s exchequer and also boost the performance of budding hockey players, since the State can now hold Hockey World Cup.
The idea for the construction of the multi-sports stadium began back in 2016 when former Executive Director of Sports Authority of India Roque Dias visited the Emirates Stadium in the UK.
After Dias’ visit to Arsenal’s home ground, he met Ayush Minister Shripad Naik and suggested to the North Goa MP that a similar stadium with the modern amenities like mini-indoor swimming pool for rehabilitation, video analyzing room, sauna bath, gym equipment with high sports performance lab be set up in Santa Cruz.
Shripad immediately wrote to the then Union Sports Minister, Rajyavardhan Rathore on April 3, 2018 and requested him to get the proposal from the Goa State Sports Department, under the creation of Sports Infrastructure.
Goa sent five proposals which included the St Cruz Football Stadium. Some of these were connected to hosting of the National Games. Some of the projects like the Squash Court at Chicalim, Astro turf at Peddem are already in place.
In the first meeting of Project Appraisal Committee (PAC), the first proposal for construction of Indoor Complex at Pernem, costing around Rs 36.8 crore, was rejected by the PAC while the synthetic turf for St Cruz stadium, estimated at around Rs.4.24 crore was approved in principle. The remaining three (Construction of hockey ground Peddem, Mapusa, Rs.5.5 crore; Squash Court, Chicalim, Rs 5.74 cr and development of lawn tennis court, Rs.3.89 cr) were initially kept in abeyance but cleared on October 6, subject to feasibility clearance.
All these projects amount to Rs 19.37 crores, which were allotted to the State. This was entirely due to the dedicated efforts of Minister for Ayush and Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik and his additional PS, KK Singh.
A year back, Dias also met Goa’s Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and proposed to send a letter to the Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju to shift the Hockey Plan Project from Peddem to Sanquelim. However, due to the CM’s busy schedule it never materialized.
Later, Shripad wrote to Rijiju on June 17, 2019 to sanction Rs 7 crore for upgradation of the synthetic football turf at St Cruz, as per the norms and policy. Under the “Creation/upgradation of Sports infrastructure “a football stadium is alloted Rs 7 crore with all the facilities for synthetic surface, like floodlights, etc. But this has to be followed by the State Sports Department (SAG) to upgrade the Rs 4.24 crore to Rs 7 crore. This request has reportedly not been sent yet to the Central Sports Ministry.
According to sources, there were 64 proposals, estimated at around Rs 160 crore.
One can hope though that the funds are released on priority and Goa marches ahead in all disciplines, before the National Games 2021 kicks off.
