BCCI team clears site for Rs 300 crore modern cricket stadium in Kashi

VARANASI: A Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) team comprising its vice-president Rajiv Shukla and secretary Jai Shah on Wednesday visited the Ganjari area in Varanasi, the site earmarked for the new Rs 300 crore state-of-the-art cricket stadium. The team is learnt to have approved the site for the BCCI-funded project for which land will be provided by the government on lease.
It will be state's third international stadium after Green Park in Kanpur and Ekana Stadium in Lucknow and first in Purvanchal region. The stadium will not only cater to the needs of people of Varanasi, but will also draw crowds from neighbouring state of Bihar.
Efforts are underway to complete other formalities related to the project including appointment of project management consultant and the company that would execute the project within the next two months in order to organize the groundbreaking ceremony within the next three months. The UP government has released a fund of Rs. 120 crore for the acquisition of 31 acres of land from farmers. The BCCI will construct the stadium at the cost of Rs. 300 crore, officials said.
After the spot inspection, divisional commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma, who accompanied the team, said: "Shukla and Shah, in presence of UPCA office-bearers including Yudhvir Singh and Uday Sinha inspected the site where 31 acres of land has already been purchased from the farmers with a fund of Rs 120 crore released by the UP government. The BCCI and UPCA authorities were satisfied with the site."
"The land in Ganjari area will be given to the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) on a 30-year lease by the UP government," he said, adding, "The lease period can be extended up to 90 years. The BCCI will fund this project for the construction of the stadium at the cost of Rs 300 crore. For the proposed stadium with 30,000 seating capacity, the BCCI will select a project management consultant and contractor for the construction work who have expertise in this field through tender process."
"This process may take up to two months to be completed. Therefore, the BCCI and UPCA officials decided to hold the foundation laying ceremony of the proposed stadium after completion of the process so that work on the project is started immediately after the ceremony is over," he added.
During their stay at the site in Ganjari, the BCCI and UPCA authorities also discussed the requirement of widening of existing roads. They were assured that once the project would come on floor, necessary measures for the upgradation of roads would be initiated.
Shukla, Shah and UPCA office-bearers were camping here since Tuesday when they had also held an initial round of discussion at a meeting in hotel Taj.
In May 2022, the state government paved the way for the construction of an international cricket stadium in the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by making budgetary provision to purchase land around 15 kilometers from the city at Gunjari village in Raja Talab Tehsil on Ring Road.