The contract of installation of the blue turf at the National Hockey Stadium has been cancelled due to the grave inability of the company to complete the task in due course of time.
“Swallow International was bound to complete the task by the given deadline of June 15, 2012, but failed to do so after wasting month long time in removing the worn out shock pads”, said a spokesman of Sports Board Punjab here on Tuesday.
The Punjab Government provided a special grant of Rs 3.5 million to lay FIH approved synthetic turf for the preparation of the Pakistan hockey team for London Olympics but the delaying tactics and the inability of the company owner Usman Afridi, jeopardized the whole process.
He said Afridi was asked a number of times to complete the work and come up with a day to day report of the progress of the work. But on every occasion he failed to meet the demand of the contract and the notices delivered to him. “He (Afridi) was also summoned for a personal hearing before Project Director Ahmer Kafi, Deputy Director Planning Naeemullah Bhatti, Deputy Director Tariq Wattoo and SDO Junaid Ahmed. But he did not give any solid answer or suitable statement,” he said.
He even went into arbitration before Secretary Sports Haroon Ahmed Khan who after hearing his case directed Afridi to complete the work as per the tender document, but he maintained his snail’s pace, said the spokesman.
“Afridi even failed to give any undertaking for the timely completion of the project and even did not give any fresh date. He instead came up with a view that in the current weather work cannot be completed and there is also no possibility of work during the month of Ramazan,” added the spokesman.
The Sports Board Punjab after the hearing cancelled the contract of Swallow International and has given it to the second bidder of the tender, TS Builder who are representing Desso in Pakistan, which is the world’s number one company in synthetic manufacturing. They have been asked to complete the work as early as possible, terms of which will be finalized in a due course.
“We have done everything as per the laid down criteria and procedure and we hope the second bidder will execute the project meeting the required internationals standards which Afridi failed to meet,” said the spokesman.
Hockey India has presented 32 olympic hockey players form 1948 olympics to present, who won a medal in the past. When I read the news I was delighted to see how the Hockey India recognized the services of the olympians from the yesteryears and also added decent monetary gesture by presenting them 10 lacs of rupees each. This is the reason that Hockey India had such a successful WHS tournament recently. In comparison the PHF keeps fighting with the fromer olympians and keeps taking them in the law of court when they try to correct the system and procedures. SHAME PHF. Look even the blue turf is not even ready for the team to practise. SHAME.
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