Youth and Sports Minister Nazmul Hassan Papon on Thursday said the ongoing renovation and modernization of Bangabandhu National Stadium will be completed by December this year.
He said this while talking to the media after visiting the renovation and modernization work of Bangabandhu Stadium here.
The minister said: "We don't want to delay any more. I want to finish within the specified time."
He said a committee will be formed to complete the work of the stadium within the stipulated time and they committee will consist of representatives from the ministry, National Sports Council, Bangladesh Football Federation and technical expert.
Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Mohiuddin Ahmed and senior officials concerned were present on the occasion.
Papon, newly appointed as the Sports Minister, who told the media on Tuesday that he would make a visit to the BNS soon, made it yesterday and looked over all the renovation works very intensely.
Meanwhile, Bangabandhu Stadium is mostly used for football and athletics. The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has been complaining about the system of watering on the surface of the playground (football) and informed the minister about it yesterday during his visit.
The manager of the grounds’ committee of the BFF strongly informed the minister in the presence of the high-ups of the National Sports Council (NSC) about the wrong watering system.
But the secretary of the Sports Minister, Dr. Mohiuddin, blamed the BFF for making the delay to draw their (NSC) attention to the problems.
Meanwhile, the renovation of the media box was also not perfect when plans for setting some columns inside the box were wrong, as those would be very disturbing when the reporters covered the matches. There was also no special space for electronic photo journalists.
The media personalities who were present during the minister’s visit informed him.
BFF said that the watering system should be a pup-up system, not a sprinkler. Though it will need another crore taka budget, the minister ensured not to make any delay.
“I don’t want to make any delay to solve the problems. In due time, I want to complete the work, and as per possible, it will be accomplished, said Papon."
Papon, after his hour-long visit, told the reporters, “What I have found here is that there are two major problems: one is the sprinkler (watering system), and the other is the media box."I understand there are problems; there is no question about it. I will try to find out the remedy, and if possible, we will obviously solve it. But I don’t think it will be impossible.”
Meanwhile, the renovation works of the Bangabandhu National Stadium started in August 2021 and failed to complete the works and hand over the stadium to NSC on scheduled times twice, while the budget of the renovation works also increased twice.