Sahid Nagar indoor hall remains idle

Up-gradation of the State-owned gymnasium-cum-indoor hall at Sahid Nagar, Bhubaneswar has given a much needed boost to the city’s infrastructure facilities for sports. But delay in the use of new facilities, especially the wooden flooring and the lighting system has reduced the importance of the good work done by the Sports Department. When inaugurated earlier this week, players and organisers in badminton and table tennis evinced overwhelming interest to take advantage of it. But they were disappointed as the Department had not prepared a guideline for the users. Of course, both Sports Minister Debasis Nayak and Department Secretary S C Pattnaik assured that such a guideline would be ready early next month. But looking at past instances, one doubts whether the authorities would be able to live up to their promise. But this is certain that till the introduction of the guideline, the indoor hall would remain idle.