2 years on, Greater Noida sports facility out of bounds for public

GREATER NOIDA: State-of-the-art sports facility — Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex — remains out of bounds for public despite being made available for use by Greater Noida authority in 2015 end.

The Greater Noida authority had, in 2015, promised that the 39 acre facility that was built with a budget of ₹130 crore will be opened to public in 2016. However, the authority does not have any idea when it will be opened for public use.

The Greater Noida authority had on August 26, 2016, decided to introduce a ‘pay and play’ policy to ensure residents get fair and quality sports facilities. It had planned to hire a private agency that was supposed to develop a dedicated portal on which any resident could book a particular time slot for a sport of his choice and play at the facility.

The app-based slot booking facility was aimed to cater to the upwardly mobile population living in Noida and Greater Noida, officials said. The authority in August 2016 had prepared terms and conditions to hire an agency. However, till now the authority has not hired an agency for this purpose.

“The government should seriously make efforts to open such projects to public use because huge funds have been spent on developing the facility. The sports complex should be opened at earliest without any delay. There is no other sports facility, where we can play,” said Vijay Kumar, a resident of NRI City who works with an MNC.

On October 27, 2016 then Greater Noida authority chief executive officer Deepak Aggarwal had shown the facility to its 536 members and decided to allow membership for others too. But later Aggarwal was transferred from Greater Noida, thereby delaying the opening of this facility.

“We had planned to introduce ‘pay and play’ policy in 2016. But we could not do this because there was a reshuffle within departments. And later, in 2017, the state government changed. But now we will ensure that people can use all facilities as we have started working in this direction,” said Rajiv Tyagi general manager of the Greater Noida authority.

The sports complex has a cricket ground with a sitting capacity of 10,000 people, Olympic size swimming pool, shooting range, football ground, skating rink, a 12-lane bowling area as per the international standards with the other supplementary facilities such as a changing room for players, toilets and a tennis stadium with 2,200 spectator capacity. There are four tennis courts, squash courts, billiards table, two volleyball courts and two basketball courts among the dedicated facilities for other sports.

The athletic arena has facilities for all events like 400 metres athletic tracks, javelin, shot put, triple jump, long jump, high jump, hammer throw, etc. There is also a practice track of 200 metres where athletes can hone their skills. The stadium has a jogging track of two km with exercise station at specific distances. Besides, ample greening has been done by planting large trees as well as shrubs at strategic points.

Box: Other facilities at the Greater Noida stadium

• A multipurpose indoor stadium with a capacity of 4,000 people and a badminton academy initiated by ace shuttler Pullela Gopichand

• An aquatic complex with a seating capacity of 2,400 people and an Olympic-size pool that can hold water polo for both men and woman

• 10m air rifle and 10m air pistol facility at shooting academy

• A stadium for athletes with eight 400m-lane and 10 100m-lane synthetic track for running

• A football ground measuring 105m x 68m, which can also be used for other sports including javelin throws and discuss throw.

• A skating rink of the standard size (25x55m) with a spectator capacity of about 1,000

• A jogging track along the boundary wall with exercise station at suitable distances for the general public

• Food court and cafeteria