Ailing Moga stadium to have waste disposal facility, if MC has its way
MOGA: A decade after the inauguration of the Godhewala stadium, conceived as a state-of-the-art sports facility to groom sporting talent of the surrounding areas, the Moga municipal corporation (MC) is planning to use the complex to set up a waste management project.
The stadium on G-T Road, designed to have badminton, table tennis, handball, basketball and volleyball courts besides having judo and wrestling arenas, is in a bad shape. The stadium has not hosted any major tournament since its inauguration. The main hall was used twice as vote counting centre during elections. Presently, religious meetings are held in it. With no sports facilities and coaches, the facility is near abandoned.
Interestingly, the sports department officials have no clue about the development.
“A request was made to the administration to allow dumping of construction waste at the stadium’s low-lying areas but I have no information about the proposal to set up a solid waste management plant, a materials recovery facility (MRF) or construction of pits,” said district sports officer Balwant Singh.
Built on 12.5 acres by the Punjab Urban and Development Authority (PUDA) with the help of the local civic body, the sports complex was a dream project of previous Akali Dal government.
In 2008, the then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had also laid the foundation stone of ₹7.50-crore outdoor stadium which was to be completed within 2 years by PUDA but nothing was done. This comes two months after the district public works department (PWD) prepared a rough estimate of ₹466.32 lakh to give the stadium a facelift.
As per the MC proposal, the stadium is one of the eighteen sites chosen for solid waste management under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. MC’S chief sanitation inspector Sandeep Kataria said they are most likely to construct pits for decomposition of segregated waste and a material recovery facility at the site.
MC commissioner Anita Darshi said she had not visited the site and could not comment on it. Mayor Akshit Jain said, “We are contributing to the green cause by utilising unused land. The administration should make a new stadium instead of repairing the old one,” Jain said.
“We have requested the MC to shelve the construction plan at the stadium,” said deputy commissioner Sandeep Hans.the chief sanitation inspector, however, said they had not received any official order to this effect.