Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development Siva V. Meyyanathan has asked the Coimbatore Corporation to send a revised Detailed Project Report (DPR) to develop a multi-sport arena at the site in the Coimbatore Corporation R.S. Puram Boys’ Higher Secondary School ground, where the civic body had initially proposed a hockey stadium.
After inspecting the ground and interacting with the Corporation officials, the Minister asked the engineers present to revise the DPR prepared for the hockey ground by including facilities for a few other sports to make it a multi-sport arena.
The Minister’s visit could lead to the resumption of work at the ground, where work began in 2014-15 after the then Mayor P. Rajkumar had allocated a total of ₹2 crore to build the hockey ground with synthetic turf on a par with international standards by having shock pad.
The Corporation floated tenders, allotted work to the successful bidder, but the work got stalled a few months later following political intervention, said sources.
The Corporation again revived the proposal by including it in the Smart Cities Mission project by allocating ₹ 23 crore to build gallery. The Coimbatore Smart City Board passed a resolution approving of the expenditure, but things took a turn at the State-level where a suggestion was made for building infrastructure for other sports as well.
The Minister also inspected Nehru Stadium.