Years after its construction in 2011, the 250-bedded four-storey sports hostel developed during the National Games that year, is lying in a poor shape due to poor maintenance. Developed at a cost of Rs 3.66 crore worth of public money, the hostel is neither being used for sports activities, nor for tourism promotion.
In 2011, the National Games were hosted by Jharkhand, and several water sporting activities including Kayaking -Canoeing, Triathlon and Rowing were held at the Maithon lake from February 21 to 25 that year. However, in a stark contrast to those days, the building lies abandoned, with thieves stealing doors and windows from its premises.
No gate between the entrance pillars at the Maithon sports complex in Dhanbad, on Friday. Picture by Gautam Dey
In addition to the hostel, out of the 26 rowing boats that were procured by the National Games organising Committee in 2011, 13 were seen lying in a damaged condition. Three of them were somewhat restored, with the other 10 being beyond repair. Some of these were also stolen in a February 2014 incident.
The electronic scoreboard constructed near the hostel to flash the scores of the participants has also been lying damaged.
“We have written to the district administration and State Art, Culture, Sports and Youth affairs department more than 100 times to hand over the infrastructure to us so that regular training for water sports can be carried out. But all our communications were left unanswered,” said Jubair Alam, while talking to The Telegraph Online. Alam is the Vice President of Dhanbad District Olympic Association, and also acted as the joint organising secretary of the Dhanbad events of 34 National Games in 2011.
“In fact the hostel and its adjoining infrastructure developed in 2011 could have been used for developing slalom course which in turn would have added to more tourist attraction of the site,” he added.
Expressing sadness, former Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterjee said, “The magnificent infrastructure developed at one of the best locales of Jharkhand is lying on death bed due to administrative apathy and typical red tapism.”
“Though several organisations including the Maithon Power Limited (MPL), Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and some private hotels had expressed interest to take the hostel, impractical pre-conditions fixed by the government, such as the exorbitant security money and rent, propelled these them to retract,” he added.
Stolen doors and windows at the Maithon sports complex, Dhanbad, on Friday. Picture by Gautam Dey
He further said as the hostel lies in extremely dilapidated state due to poor upkeep and many organisations are not keen on taking its charge as a huge amount of money would be needed to repair it.
Executive Magistrate and the officer-in-charge of sports of Dhanbad, Kumar Bandhu Kachhap, said, “Though I am not aware about the 2011 hostel lying in such a bad shape, but if true, I would soon visit the site and initiate a handover process. I will also look into its further development as a water sports training facility because it is one of the best locations to do so.”