Venues behind schedule
While the deadline is not far away, the construction of the extended seating area at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium is only in its early stage. The venue will host two 2011 Cricket World Cup matches. PHOTO: ANURUP KANTI DASAnisur Rahman
As the start of the ICC Cricket Word Cup 2011 draws closer, the renovation and modernisation works at five different venues in Bangladesh, co-hosts of the landmark event, have been ramped up. The final ICC (International Cricket Council) inspection team is due to arrive here in the second week of December. Though reality shows that work will not be completed by that time, the host tournament director Ali Ahsan Babu is confident that the venues will meet the specific requirements of the world governing body.
"During the inspection, the ICC team is supposed to check some mandatory things like wickets, outfield, players' dressing rooms, press boxes, scoreboards, floodlights and accommodation facilities for the players and officials," explained Babu. "These mandatory requirements are on the verge of completion, and I am confident that they will be ready by the time the inspection team arrives."
Two of the five venues -- the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) and Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium -- will be completed in their entirety only in mid-January, mainly because of additional demands made by local organisers, though all five venues were supposed to be handed over to the BCB by the end of this month.
"As per the tenders, all works at those five venues have almost been completed but we have been forced to extend the works in line with fresh requirements at some venues," said Abdur Rahman, National Sports Council director of planning and development.
Rahman, however maintained that all the remaining three venues would be completed by mid-December.
Among those venues, the BNS will host the opening ceremony on February 17, Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium will stage group matches as well as quarterfinals, Chittagong's Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium will stage two group matches while Narayanganj's Osmani Stadium and Khulna's Abu Naser Stadium have been kept as practice and backup venues respectively.
Apart from new car-parking, stands, extended media centre and post-match briefing centre, hospitality boxes, instalment of chairs on all galleries, floodlights, digital scoreboard, giant screen, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has asked the NSC to build 12 more corporate-house boxes at the South-Western corner of SBNS in addition to the 10 already in place, in face of increasing demands while the authorities concerned decided to build a 11,000-capatcity gallery at the east side of Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, which currently has a capacity of only 9,000 spectators.
At the 28,000-capacity BNS, 23,000 chairs have so far been installed in the galleries, with work still ongoing on in the VIP and Hospitality boxes. A shower, a four-tonne World Cup replica, terracotta at three newly built entrances, and a giant screen are in the process of being installed at the venue.
The government has already sanctioned Tk 256 crore for venue preparation, and is set to allot another Tk 48 crore for the additional works at these venues, where the renovation and modernisation works had started in November last year.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...php?nid=163407