OdishaPlus Bureau
- City Festivals and District Level festivals to be organised across all districts
- Dedicated flight service for players between Rourkela-Bhubaneswar
- Schools, colleges and communities to be involved in sports and hockey promotion
With barely a few weeks to go for the commencement of the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup, the Organising Committee took review of the preparations for the mega event and directed concerned officials to complete the upgradation, beautification works and augmentation of services in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, the two host cities, at the earliest.
The discussions in the review meeting, which was co-chaired by Chief Secretary of Odisha Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, President Hockey India Dilip Tirkey and the Secretary to the Chief Minister VK Pandian, centred around the preparations made by various departments and districts for the successful conduct of the event.
The focus of the discussions included stadium readiness, connectivity, hospitality, community outreach, safety and security, traffic and crowd management, World Cup celebrations and city festivals, hospitality and medical arrangements during the grand event.
It was informed that the Department of Sports and Youth services has allocated a budget of Rs 75 crore during the FY 2022-23 for the Hockey World Cup.
FIH has already certified the four turfs; two at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium that were recently re-laid and two new turfs (main stadium and practice pitch) laid at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium. The lighting systems have also been operational in both the stadiums with certification.
The facilities for the teams at Bhubaneswar and Rourkela were reviewed. The teams will be provided dedicated flights for their movement between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. Commercial flights to Rourkela are expected to start soon following the necessary approvals.
Mo Bus services in Rourkela will be operational from January while the services in Bhubaneswar are being augmented. It was decided that spectators having match day tickets will be allowed to travel in Mo Bus free-of-cost.
The security arrangements and traffic and parking management was discussed in detail to ensure a safe, secured and smooth experience for the spectators.
The Hockey World Cup Celebrations event in Cuttack on 11th January was also reviewed in detail.
Pandian conveyed the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik that the celebrations be organised across all the districts in a grand manner involving communities, schools, colleges etc. There will be prizes for the best performing districts. Discussions were held with district Collectors on the arrangements for city and district-level festivals. The Trophy Tour will cover all the districts in the state.
The host cities of Bhubaneswar and Rourkela are being upgraded and beautified to make it ready for the Hockey World Cup. It was directed that all the works should be completed at the earliest.
Senior officials from various departments and Hockey India were present at the review meeting.