Rourkela, March 18: As directed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra and Secretary to CM (5T) VK Pandian on Friday visited Rourkela to review the progress of work on the Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium and other development projects.
Upon reaching Rourkela, the team first reviewed the progress of the Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium at BPUT Campus and advised the officials concerned to expedite the work for timely completion of the project.
Odisha is the host for 2023 Men’s Hockey World Cup. The world cup matches will be held jointly at Kalinga Hockey Stadium Bhubaneswar and this state of the art facility (Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium) at Rourkela.
This sports facility is going to be India’s largest hockey stadium. Astro Turf will be laid at the stadium as per the standards of International Hockey Federation. The stadium will have a spectator capacity of over 20,000. Practice turfs, advanced fitness centre and floodlights for night time matches have been provisioned at the stadium.
Govt High Schools in Sundargarh are getting a facelift in line with the state government’s flagship initiative High School Transformation Under 5T initiative. The Chief Minister dedicated 67 transformed government high schools in Sundargarh during phase-1 of the programme. Work is in progress to take a step further and dedicate over 100 transformed government high schools.
The high level delegation visited Udit Nagar High Shcool at Rourkela and reviewed the progress on various aspects of transformed high school like Smart Classroom, e-Library, Modern Science Lab, playground and other infrastructure.
Rourkela got placed among the Top 15 global cities in Bloomberg International Global Mayors Challenge 2021. A 5 MT Cold Storage facility has been setup at VSS Market, Chhend to support the livelihood of small farmers and fruit and vegetable vendors under the Global Mayors Challenge.
Maa Tarini SHG, a local Women Self Help Group has been engaged to manage the cold storage. The high level team visited the facility and discussed various aspects of the same with Women SHG members. The team members praised the efforts of WSHGs running such a non traditional and modern initiative.
Various development projects are being accelerated under Rourkela Smart City. As part of the under construction Rourkela-One project, a Traffic Command Centre, Proposed Tribal Museum, Convention Hall, Market Complex, etc are being built. Road construction and city beautification is also being done on a war footing to make the city ready for international tourists and visitors ahead of the 2023 Men’s Hockey World Cup, a marquee sports event.
Principal Secretary Industries Hemant Sharma, Secretary Sports and Youth Services R. Vineel Krishna and Managing Director IDCO Bhupinder Singh Poonia were part of the high-level delegation.
MLA Rourkela & District Planning Committee Chairman Sarada Prasad Nayak, Collector Sundargarh Nikhil Pavan Kalyan, ADM Rourkela cum Commissioner RMC Dr Subhankar Mohapatra, senior officials of the district and Rourkela Municipal Corporation were present on the occasion.
