Stadium that bears ravages of neglect
Above, scores of floating people occupying the unfinished stalls of the stadium, below, an aerial view of the stadium.Photo: STAR
After years of lacklustre state, the Birshreshta Sipahi Mostafa Kamal Stadium at Kamalapur was finally shaping up to be a decent sporting turf for footballers. That was until last month when hundreds of people marched inside the ground for a cultural celebration.
After a daylong merrymaking and hurrah, the visitors left behind a ground that could be easily mistaken for a cattle gazing field. Ground officials spent days scraping chewed gums, peanut shells and cigarette butts off the 35,000-seat football stadium.
"We have been trying to improve the quality of the field so that it can meet international standards," said a ground official, "things have been pretty smooth and it was good enough to host sporting events. But these recent social events did a lot of damage to the ground, undoing much of our work."
"Sporting turfs require careful attention and maintenance," he explained, "when you have a ground full of trash and litters blended with mud and water, it is really difficult to clean them from the ground and prepare it for a match."
The ground officials are still struggling to prepare the ground for a second division football league tournament, he added.
According to sources, the stadium hosted a number of public events including concerts and festivals over the past year.
"A few months back a game was even cancelled to hold a charity concert in the ground," said an official at the Birshreshta Mostafa Kamal Stadium.
However, public events making damage to the ground seems to be only a part of the whole story.
Ground supervising officials alleged that the Tk 30.54-crore stadium was completed in a hurry and had a fair amount of construction work left when it was inaugurated in 2003.
"Bulk of the allotted money was pocketed by a section of unscrupulous officials. Only part of the amount was used to hurriedly finish the job and meet the deadline," said an official.
The official told this correspondent that a number of galleries were unfinished when the stadium was inaugurated. Some parts of the stadium need fair amount of construction work while some other have already deteriorated and require immediate renovation.
"It was only recently when a number of shops were handed over to their owners. These shops were not completed although they were allotted to them quite a while ago," he added.
Scores of floating families were also seen living in some of the poorly maintained and unfinished stalls round the stadium. The rear section wore the worst look with scenes identical to a slum area.
"They (floating people) have been evicted a number of times but they always come back after some days," said Mohammad Ata, the ground supervisor. "They would not leave the stadium until the shop owners take possession of those isolated shop stalls."
Another official who was seen supervising watering of dying plants on the stadium premises pointed towards the piles of debris and trash scattered all over. He grudgingly blamed the authorities for not paying heed to the stadium's poor conditions.
"Even collecting these people just to water these plants took a fair bit of effort, which is supposed to be a routine work. So you can guess the rest of the picture," said the official. "I have been with this stadium since its early days and it really hurts to see it like this," he added.
About the shabby condition of the stadium, sources at the National Sports Council (NSC) told this correspondent that the stadium has not seen any renovation or construction work since its opening in 2003.
"Some social events including a road show took place in the stadium, but there would not be any more of those," asserted arrested Fazlul Azim, regional officer of NSC and the official in-charge of the Birshreshta Sipahi Mostafa Kamal Stadium.
"This ground is meant for sports, and hopefully it will remain so," he said adding that the stadium is currently holding a second division football tournament.
"There are plans to renovate and improve the ground. We are hopeful to start the work by the first quarter of next year," he added.
Mohammad Ata pointed at the muddy, slippery ground and blamed the sand upon which it was prepared because of the feral nature of the grass.
"The real ground lays about one and a half feet below the drainage system and probably it subsided due to the sand beneath the whole stadium," he said. "We need to fill the whole ground with two feet of soil before planting new grass to make it usable," he added.
The stadium was built over a ground that was previously used as a garbage-dumping site by Dhaka City Corporation. The authorities filled the dumping ground with sand before constructing the stadium, which barely helps the situation.
Locals alleged that a ring of floating people, drug addicts, sex traders and makeshift vendors take over the stadium at night. During a visit to the ground, this correspondent found some bottles of phensidyl (a banned drug) scattered around the ground premises.
"Before they put some security guards, which was quite recently, the ground used to turn into a den of criminals at night. For obvious reasons, we had issues to worry about and felt apprehensive of offences," said Arafat Huda, a resident of Mugda.
Comments