CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, April 9: The tender to install Astroturf in the Simdega Hockey Stadium has been given to a Real Estate company, M/s M.C. Jain, instead of an International Federation of Hockey (FIH) certified field builder. This was one of the primary conditions in the tender.
The seven certified field builders named on the FIH website are Shiv Naresh, Advance Sports, Altias Sports, Chadda Sports, Great Sports, Spartia Axim and Syncats. Despite these, M/s M.C. Jain was considered due to technical advantage.
The bidding window opened on April 5. A total of five companies took part in the bidding out of which Shiv Naresh, Chadda Sports and Altias Sports have prior experience in building hockey fields.
The third tender was worth Rs. 8.2 crore in the bidding and M/s M.C. Jain has won the bidding at 8.6 crores. Other companies have quoted a lesser bidding value.
As per the information, a complaint has been sent to Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Chief Secretary in which irregularities of the tender Committee have been mentioned and have requested immediate action.
A few days back, there was an official announcement that the stadium has completed 80% of its work and is ready for players to practice.
However, SImdega Hockey President Manoj Konbegi had informed that the work is yet to start and nothing has been done since the foundation stone was laid in November 2021.