B’pur Stadium gets land expansion

Ending a long row, finally the Brahmapur Stadium was handed over land for its expansion on Tuesday.

The district administration got six acres of land from the possession of the Army where its staff quarters and a hospital have been built. The demolition of the buildings on the land has started.

When the stadium was stared in 1984, the land was in the possession of the Army. More than half of about 17.62 acres land was used for the Army infrastructure. Consequently, there was scarcity of land to expand the stadium, which had only three galleries, a hostel, a volley and basket ball court.

Though there was a long standing demand that the Army evict the land for expansion of the stadium, it could not be carried out. The State Sports and Youth Affairs Department had taken up the matter with the Centre several times. However, after the State Government assured to give land and construct the quarters of the Army on another patch of land, the latter agreed to shift.

During possession of the land for the stadium, district administration officials including Brahmapur Sub Collector Sidhanta Sankar Swain, Tehsildar Ranjit Parida, Sports Officer Prasant Kumer Sahu, among others, were present. Sources said while the stadium is proposed to be made an integrated international and satellite stadium, there would be more galleries, a 400 meter synthetic running track, VIP lounge, swimming pool, gymnasium, and guest house etc in its campus.