Sukkur Sports Complex in jeopardy

KARACHI: The construction and development work at the multipurpose sports complex in Sukkur has been suspended for four months, The News has learnt.

The sports fraternity in Sukkur informed this scribe that facilities of all sports except hockey are being developed in the sports complex, including cricket, football, athletics. Sources said that work at Sukkur Spots Complex began four years ago. In this period a number of sports complexes, playgrounds and gymnasiums have been completed.

Sources said that athletic track‘s cemented base has been completed and tartan track was going to be laid when the development work was stopped. A green synthetic turf has been imported for football, but has not been laid so far due to the stoppage of development work.

An official of a sports association said that a cricket stadium is also being developing. The building of indoor sports complex has been developed but its flooring, electrical wiring, and some other work remains to be done.

After completion of the indoor complex, there will be all indoor sports facilities, including table tennis, badminton, volleyball, and basketball. Sources related to the sports fraternity in Sukkur further said that due to the inattention and carelessness of the authorities concerned and due to poor security, a lot of material is being stolen from the project site.

The sports fraternity appealed to the PPP chairperson Bilwal Bhutto, and chief minister Murad Ali Shah to take notice of the delay in the development work and issue directives for its completion. If timely action was not taken, this wonderful sports project would be destroyed and the sports fraternity would be deprived of opportunities to hone its talent.

The Sindh government during the last few years has built a number of sports complexes, gymnasiums, playgrounds in various cities and districts, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Khairpur and Badin with facilities of indoor sports, and grounds of football, cricket and hockey. About 70 percent of the project is completed, but there has been no work for past four months for political reasons and some alleged malpractice and corruption.