By IANS,
Raipur : Chhattisgarh, one of India’s youngest states, Thursday got its first international cricket stadium – “the country’s second best after Kolkata’s Eden Gardens”, according to a minister.
Governor E.S.L Narasimhan, Chief Minister Raman Singh and the entire council of ministers made the formal announcement at a colourful function attended by about 20,000 people.
Later in the day, the stadium with a crowd capacity of 60,000 will host its first tie: a Twenty20 day-night show between the Governor’s Eleven and CM Eleven.
The stadium is built at Parsada village in Naya Raipur, on the Mumbai-Kolkata national highway. Naya Raipur, 20 km from here, will replace Raipur as the state’s capital by 2011.
“This is the second best cricket stadium of the country after the Eden Gardens in terms of seating capacity and facilities available to crowd and players,” Sports Minister Brijmohan Agrawal told IANS.
With Chhattisgarh going to polls in November, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched a campaign to ensure that it gets the credit for putting the state on the international cricket map.
“The stadium is under construction. Two-thirds of the total budget amount of about Rs.100 crore (Rs.1 billion) has been spent so far. The Hyderabad-based Nagarajuna Construction Company has done a good job in developing it as one of the best cricket stadiums,” Agrawal added.
“It will take at least six months more to finish the construction, but we are in touch with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to get a chance of hosting an international match by 2010. By then Raipur will have five-star hotels and a six-lane expressway connecting to the stadium,” the minister said.
But officials say it will take at least five years for the state to host any international cricket event as the Chhattisgarh Cricket Association is not affiliated to BCCI.
The stadium has 13 blocks named after the state’s famous rivers such as the Mahanadi, Indrawati, Shivnath, Kharun, Arpa, Pairi, Lilagar, Sone, Hasdeo, Kanhar, Kelo, and Rehar.
The blocks 12 and 13 have been combined with the Mahanadi block which is the main block including the pavilion and the VVIP gallery. A huge media box is attached to Indrawati block.
The stadium spreads out in 50 acres has an electronic score board, nine pitches and car parking space up to 6,000 four-wheelers and 11 ticket plazas while work is on for construction of a cricket museum and restaurants.