Rain leaves Sector 43 sports complex with a leaking roof

Deepankar Sharda

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 21

Heavy rains in the Tricity washed away tall claims of the local administration of providing world class sports infrastructure to the city residents. The roof and walls of newly opened indoor sports complex at Government Model High School, Sector 43, were flooded with rainwater on Monday. 

Built at an estimated cost of Rs 9 crore, the complex was inaugurated in January but it was thrown open to players just a few weeks back. The same problem was reported last year on December 15, but at that time, the patches of the leaking roof were repaired immediately. But today’s rain has again revealed the loopholes in city’s first indoor complex. The rainwater dripping from the roof damaged three different badminton courts in the complex. 

The administration had installed synthetic/wooden courts at this complex specially imported from Europe at a high cost. One of the walls of the all-weather swimming pool was also partially affected by the leakage. 

“We can only repair the affected part. Rainwater is seeping in from the light outlets made up of fabricated sheets. These can be only repaired and not changed. Although we check the infrastructure from time to time but during the rainy season the situation becomes acute. It will be repaired soon,” said an executive engineer of the Engineering Department. Officials of the UT Education and Sports Department refused to comment on the issue. 

During the planning stage, it was decided that the UT Sports Department will look after the coaching aspect and the Education Department will take care of the budgetary provisions. The responsibility of repairing was assigned to the UT Engineering Department. 

Regular visitors at the complex said the walls of the badminton courts had encounter seepage problem earlier also but it was repaired soon to cover up the matter. 

“This should have been checked by the Engineering Department when they took possession of the structure from the contractor. The complex is hardly nine months old, and if such a scenario continues, it will get worse in the next few years,” said Khushdeep Kumar, a swimmer.