Opposition leaders find fault with Burlton Park project in Jalandhar

As the state government is set to lay the foundation stone for Rs 77.7 crore re-development of sports hub project at the Burlton Park tomorrow evening, there have been voices of dissent coming from the Opposition.

Former Jalandhar MP and BJP leader Sushil Rinku has slammed the project, saying, “When we cannot have international cricket matches at the Burlton Park, then there is no idea of investing the money.

“The Burlton Park has been known for its international cricket stadium since it was set up in 1955. It had been the venue of the India-Pakistan Test match in 1983 and India-England ODI in 1991. We cannot fiddle with the project in a way that it loses its identity”, he said.

He added, “To my knowledge, the proposed cricket stadium in the sports hub will have a seating capacity of just 2,500 spectators. So, it will not even have the required infrastructure even for Ranji Trophy matches. I want to warn AAP leaders against investing money into any project which will not even boost the sports goods business or tourism in the city.”

Congress MP from Jalandhar Charanjit Channi said the funds being used on the project had already been doled out by him during his tenure as Chief Minister at the fag-end of the previous Congress regime. “I remember having sanctioned Rs 77.7 crore during my term as CM. The AAP is using that money now”, he said.

AAP leader Nitin Kohli, however, maintained, “An international standard stadium requires a seating capacity of 30,000. It is not possible to have such a big stadium at the centre of the city. To go with this kind of seating capacity provisions, we also need to have ample parking facility and wider roads. So the best possibility we could think of was to have 7,500 seating capacity stadium, which will be good enough for hosting domestic cricket matches.”