Greater Noida authority to develop sports complex into ‘centre of excellence’

GREATER NOIDA: The Greater Noida authority has decided to develop the city’s sports complex into a “centre of excellence” in the next two months to ensure that the sports facilities, including Olympic-size swimming pool, football ground, cricket ground and shooting range, are available to young talent and sports enthusiasts, officials aware of the matter said on Sunday.

For the last many years, the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex, has been out of bounds for visitors and professional sportspersons due to lack of maintenance, which is a challenge for the Greater Noida authority. Spread over 39 acres,the sport complex was constructed in 2015 at a cost of ₹130 crore.

Greater Noida authority’s chief executive officer (CEO) Ravikumar NG has directed the sports department to take steps to upgrade the complex, so that it can be utilised not only by the local sports talent but also host international-level sports events.

“We have issued expressions of interest (EOI) inviting the proposals from expert companies, which can come forward to take responsibility and run each sports wing properly. We want to develop this sports facility as a centre of excellence,” said Ravikumar.

In July, the authority may finalise the company that will run this facility and the upgradation work as the complex is expected to commence in July-end or August, said officials.

The authority wants to host T-20 cricket tournaments events in July-end or August, for which it will raise the seating arrangements from 8,000 to 20,000 at the cricket stadium that has hosted international cricket events in the past.

On October 26, the authority issued an EOI document, and a pre-bid meeting was held on October 30 to offer replies to queries regarding EOI. After the submission of bids till November last year, no company showed interest in the project, said officials.

Currently, due to lack of maintenance, the state-of-the-art sports facilities are out of bounds for citizens and sports enthusiasts.

Harendra Bhati, a member of the sports complex, said that the Greater Noida authority did not seem serious about handling the facility as it failed to even hire an agency to run it in the last seven to eight years. “We paid the membership fees a decade ago, but still cannot use the facility due to the negligence of officials,” he added.

To be sure, the sports complex was supposed to open for public in 2016. However, the authority could not find a professional agency to run it. Thus, it has not been opened to the public till date.