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Cultural shows, film shoots: Ludhiana’s indoor stadium hosts it all but sporting activities
The municipal corporation is yet to harness the facility for its intended purpose of promoting sports activities and maximising revenue potential by renting out or selling the shops within its premises
Inaugurated with much fanfare in 2016 to promote sports activities, the ₹85 crore indoor stadium here has been grappling with maintenance issues and is being used for organising cultural events and occasional movie shoots.
The municipal corporation is yet to harness the facility for its intended purpose of promoting sports activities and maximising revenue potential by renting out or selling the shops within its premises.
MC officials disclosed that while a few shops have been allocated to the water supply 24x7 project team, the stadium’s 70 shops remain vacant.
Considerable expenses have been incurred for the maintenance of the stadium’s infrastructure, with approximately ₹30 lakh disbursed for the maintenance of air conditioners alone.
Despite these investments, the stadium has primarily hosted cultural events and occasional movie shoots, failing to fulfill its intended role as a hub for sporting activities.
An MC official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, revealed instances of technical glitches, including AC malfunctions during events, highlighting underlying maintenance issues. In 2019, the stadium was rendered unavailable for events due to AC chiller repairs, further underscoring the challenges hindering its operational efficiency.
Touted as a world-class facility capable of accommodating over 4,000 spectators and 200 cars, the stadium’s potential remains largely untapped amid ongoing maintenance woes and a dearth of strategic utilisation.
Karan Jaitely, a city resident said, “The stadium was inaugurated with pomp and show that this will boost the sports in the city with multipurpose activities and infrastructure. The day the stadium has been inaugurated, nothing specific event or games festival has been organised in this stadium to boost the games. Crores of rupees have been spent but this is sheer wastage of public money.”
Jaskirat Singh, a sports enthusiast said, “Questions arise regarding the MC’s efficacy in optimising public assets for the community’s benefit. If MC has failed to promote this stadium then they could give this ground and particular infrastructure to players who don’t have any facility to train themselves.”
“We have tried to auction the shops at the stadium multiple times but failed to sell them. Now we are trying to lower the reserve price of the shops. The department is also trying to organise different sports events to make this indoor stadium a successful investment,” MC zonal commissioner Jasdev Sekhon said.
