Years after its construction in 2011, the 250-bedded four-storey sports hostel developed during the National Games that year, is lying in a poor shape due to poor maintenance. Developed at a cost of Rs 3.66 crore worth of public money, the hostel is neither being used for sports activities, nor for tourism promotion.
In 2011, the National Games were hosted by Jharkhand, and several water sporting activities including Kayaking -Canoeing, Triathlon and Rowing were held at the Maithon lake from February 21 to 25 that year. However, in a stark contrast to those days, the building lies abandoned, with thieves stealing doors and windows from its premises.
In addition to the hostel, out of the 26 rowing boats that were procured by the National Games organising Committee in 2011, 13 were seen lying in a damaged condition. Three of them were somewhat restored, with the other 10 being beyond repair. Some of these were also stolen in a February 2014 incident.
The electronic scoreboard constructed near the hostel to flash the scores of the participants has also been lying damaged.
“We have written to the district administration and State Art, Culture, Sports and Youth affairs department more than 100 times to hand over the infrastructure to us so that regular training for water sports can be carried out. But all our communications were left unanswered,” said Jubair Alam, while talking to The Telegraph Online. Alam is the Vice President of Dhanbad District Olympic Association, and also acted as the joint organising secretary of the Dhanbad events of 34 National Games in 2011.
