Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi visits Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup venue Kalinga Stadium

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi visited Kalinga Stadium, the venue for Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup, to take stock of various ongoing works on Tuesday.

Expressing satisfaction over the progress of work, Padhi said infrastructure development of the stadium is in full swing. Once all the works are completed, the venue will get a completely new look with world-class facilities. All ongoing works will be completed by September, he said.

Padhi, who visited almost every nook and corner of the stadium, said capacity of the galleries has been increased to 15,000 with installation of new chairs. Construction work of four dressing rooms, media centre, broadcasters and match officials’ room is expected to be over by September-end. Relaying of the new blue turf has been completed in both the main and practice grounds, he added.    

Matches of the World Cup, to be held from November 28 to December 16, will be played on the new turf. Two matches will be played in each day from 5 pm onwards. While the quarterfinals will be held on December 12 and 13, semifinal and final matches are scheduled on December 15 and 16 respectively.

Meanwhile, Hockey India officials who are in the City to conduct the three-day inspection of the venue, have expressed satisfaction over the ground condition and progress of work at the stadium.Among others, Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan Sports and Youth Services Secretary Vishal Dev, Director Vineel Krishna, Commissioner of Police Satyajit Mohanty, IDCO CMD Sanjay Kumar Singh and BMC Krishan Kumar were present.