After long wait, KT Nagar stadium to see sports activities

 

 

 

TWO years ago the sports stadium at K T Nagar was ready. Unfortunately, due to some or the other reasons, sports activities did not start. People waited and of them kept asking administration about the date of opening of the stadium but did not get any answer. Everyone raised question why the ‘ready to use’ stadium was not being opened. Fortunately, the authorities took final decision and the stadium would start witnessing sports activities probably from second week of January, 2022. This stadium was conceptualised by Sudhakar Deshmukh, the then MLA of West Nagpur. It was Fadnavis Government before whom Deshmukh had put a proposal of sports complex. “Government had developed a good indoor stadium in South West Nagpur and on the same lines I too wanted a big multi-sports complex in West Nagpur. I had put a proposal for the complex and Government gave approval to the same. An amount of over two crore was sanctioned. The complex was supposed to be developed by Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT). I took all efforts and even identified a piece of 2-acre land for the complex.

 

With Fadnavis Government sanctioning funds, the work of development of complex completed and stadium came into existence in 2019. Shockingly, after end of my tenure no step was taken and the fully developed stadium remained unused,” elaborated Sudhakar Deshmukh. Deshmukh had planned of having volleyball, basketball, badminton, skating at the K T Nagar complex. The then NIT Chairperson Sheetal Ugale-Teli had worked on it and it was during her tenure that the stadium took final shape. “NIT has to run such projects through some agency. We were waiting to get such an agency but we failed to get till the end of my tenure,” informed Sheetal Ugale-Teli. Dr Manoj Kumar Suryavanshi, who took over as Chairman of NIT, tried to give momentum to this project.

 

Unfortunately, during the same time corona pandemic hit the world and this project did not move forward. With corona easing out, Dr Suryavanshi swung into action and finally got an agency in the name of Ajay Dayal Sports Academy Private Limited to run it. When ‘The Hitavada’ contacted Dayal, he said, “Yes, we received the work of running the complex and we will be able to start it by January 10, 2022. Because of being unused, the stadium has developed some damages. We will mend those and do some renovation work to make it playable. It will be a great stadium in Nagpur that we can say for sure. It will be with us for 10 years as per the agreement and in that period we will endeavour to make it top class.” Residents of the area are also happy.

 

“This project has raised hopes of residents of the area and was a very welcome initiative. Unfortunately, for the last two years it could not take off. However, despite being complete it was not opened for public use. As a sport loving citizen, I wished there was a way to change the status quo. Now the news of opening of the stadium is a welcoming step and I appreciate the initiative by administration,” said an alert citizen Dr Pragya Mathur Kumar.