A five-year-old project for constructing a four-storey multi-purpose sports hall at the Tau Devi Lal sports complex in Sector 38 may finally see progress.

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has directed the cash-strapped Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), earlier known as Haryana Urban Development Authority(Huda), to simply complete the construction of the building’s superstructure and hand over the remaining project to them, said officials on Thursday.

The sports complex will include amenities such as an Olympic-size swimming pool, a badminton court, a volleyball court, racing tracks, and a hostel for sports players, said officials.

The Haryana government had approved this project in September 2014, following which the HSVP had finalised a contractor in July 2015 and set a 15-month deadline.

Construction for the ₹22 crore project started in June 2016 but was stalled by December 2016 as the HSVP ran out of funds, said officials.

A few iron beams were the only thing which had been constructed, and that’s all that remains at the site even today.

The GMDA which took over the complex from HSVP in July last year had initially directed the HSVP to complete the project and hand it over to them.

V Umashankar, the chief executive officer of GMDA, said that with no progress from HSVP’s end since then, they have directed them to simply construct the superstructure and hand over the remaining project for GMDA to complete.

“We recently asked HSVP officials for a status update on the progress of the project. We learnt that a lot of accounting issues such as overpayment and underpayments to various stakeholders were proving to be a hurdle for them. In addition, there was a lack of clarity in how much construction had been carried out and how much had been measured. So we simplified the task for the HSVP and told them to simply complete the superstructure and handover the rest of the work to us,” said Umashakar.

Shweta Sharma, executive engineer of the HSVP, said that construction of the project will resume from where it had halted and said a new agency will be appointed for constructing the superstructure.

“GMDA has limited our work. After the balance work is completed, we will be floating the tenders for the project in a month’s time. Estimates for the project have already been approved and tenders are in the process of being compiled simultaneously. The construction will take off from where it was left, albeit with a new agency,” said Sharma.

Sharma said that until the tender process is complete, she would not be able to comment on the deadline for the project.

Due to the project being stuck in limbo for a long time, the GMDA recently awarded a contract for constructing a wrestling and archery shed at the complex to a private agency.

“If the multipurpose project had been completed in time, GMDA would not have needed to construct two separate facilities for archery and wrestling. It would have been incorporated in it instead. We still have plans for making the sheds as a venue for practice and the halls as a place where competitions can take place,” said Umashankar.

First Published: May 27, 2019 00:19 IST