After the cancellation of first installer’s contract, the work on the much-awaited blue turf has finally been started by the second bidder here at the National Hockey Stadium.
The Sports Board Punjab cancelled the contract of Swallow Internationals which failed to complete the task on the given deadline of June 15, 2012. The second lowest bidder, TS Builders which were allocated the contract has started the work on world’s biggest hockey arena by cleaning the asphalt surface to make it ready for laying international standard shock pads on which the blue-coloured desso turf will be laid.
Workers were seen busy in cleaning the surface besides marking the arena to ascertain the condition of the asphalt. Fazle Mateen Qureshi, Chief Executive TS Builders told media here on Thursday that they are happy to have the contract and they will endeavour to lay a state of the art turf which will meet all the international standards. “It is world’s biggest hockey stadium and it is a big honour for us to install a blue synthetic turf on it and we will do our best to complete it in trend setting way in minimum time period,” he said.
“We have done the initial inspection of the arena and have also inspecting the asphalt base. We are taking the samples of the surface for lab tests just to ensure whether it is fit to lay the shock pads and the turf or not. It would take about a day or two to test the samples but in the meantime we would work on other things on the base of the stadium and hopefully complete the work before time,” he said.
He said he will flying to Holland to meet desso’s manufacturers to order the turf and the shock pads. “We will be aiming to execute the work as early as possible because the rainy season is fast approaching and it is not possible to work during rainy days as it can damage the material,” he said. He expressed his gratitude to SBP for allocating them the project.
