Karnataka cricket body to showcase go-green initiative to other states

The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) is hosting event next month for other associations and sports federations to showcase its go-green initiative.

The M Chinnaswamy Stadium here is the first in the country to use solar panels for electricity generation and have a SubAir drainage system that sucks water at 30-odd times the speed of drainage by gravity. That apart, it has a sewage treatment plant, capacity to turn wet waste into bio energy besides rain water harvesting facility.

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“We began these projects soon after this current committee took over in 2013,” says Santosh Menon, assistant secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association. “It has helped us bring down our electricity cost to 40-50 per cent.”

“Also the recycled water is used on the ground and we ensure that we don’t draw underground water.”

The association gives the energy produced back to the grid and the cost of that is adjusted against what they purchase. They have to pay the difference.

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On May 27, 28 and 29, the Karnataka body will host all the other cricket associations along with the sports federations and make a detailed presentation of their initiative in the presence of Union minister.

“As of now we are the only ones doing it. But we have been asked by the government to do a presentation for not just the state cricket associations but all sports bodies. The German company that installed all of this will also be present.”

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The ground-drying SubAir system, which was used during the Ranji Trophy tie between Bengal and Karnataka last season, has cost KSCA around Rs 4 crore. “What the amount of rain, it takes just 10 minutes to dry the ground.”