Raipur: On Thursday, before the fourth Twenty20 cricket match between Australia and India at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium in Raipur, India’s Suryakumar Yadav and head coach VVS Laxman worked out.
A major obstacle must be overcome hours before India and Australia play in their fourth Twenty20 International cricket match at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh stadium in Raipur: a sizable portion of the venue is without electricity. According to NDTV, the problem is a 2009 electricity bill that hasn’t been paid.
Five years ago, the stadium’s power supply was disconnected due to an unpaid bill of ₹3.16 crore. Although there is a makeshift electrical connection, it is only used for the boxes and spectator gallery. As a result, the publication stated, the stadium authorities intend to run generators to power the floodlights during the game.
The Raipur Rural Circle in-charge, Ashok Khandelwal, stated that the secretary of the Cricket Association had requested an increase in the temporary connection’s capacity. Although the upgrade to 1,000 KV has been approved, it has not yet been implemented.
The stadium has experienced electrical problems in the past. In 2018, the absence of power supply caught half-marathon participants off guard. Then it was disclosed that, according to the publication, the stadium’s electricity bills had been rising since 2009.
The Public Works Department (PWD) was initially tasked with maintaining the stadium, with the Sports Department covering additional costs. But because of the unpaid electricity bill, there has been a blame game between the two departments.
The electricity company has sent the PWD and the Sports Department several notices regarding the unpaid dues, but they have not been paid. Since the 2018 power outage, the stadium has hosted three international cricket matches, but this financial impasse has remained.
Temporary connection
The Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh (CSCS) media coordinator, Tarunesh Singh Parihar, voiced reservations about holding international matches in these circumstances. He claims that as a workaround, the stadium uses generators for big events, as reported by NDTV. In the name of CSCS, a temporary connection has been made, he continued.
