The work for the laying of the Desso Blue Turf at the National Hockey Stadium has started and is expected to be completed by the first week of January. The work at the stadium was stalled due to the ill-planned approach of Swallow International, the company which was given the task to complete the work. But due to the delaying tactics and reluctance to replace the old shock pads with the new ones the Sports Board Punjab was compelled to hand over the job to the second lowest bidder, which was the TS Builders. The TS Builders after doing its complete homework brought not only the blue turf but also the shock pads from Holland to lay at the Stadium. However, during the course of time the venues were utlised for the Punjab Youth, Provincial and National Festivals 2012 and Punjab International Sports Festival activities, that also included the record breaking mass national anthem singing event, the biggest mosaic and the largest human flag and later international freestyle wrestling was also held at the same venue. Now the sports and general activity is over the venue is handed over to the contractor who has after cleaning the surface started the laying of the shock pads and once the pads are laid, the blue turf would be pasted over it. According to the contractor the work would be completed in a month’s time and the venue will be ready for use in January. “We have laid the shock pads at one-fourth part of the stadium and within a day or two it will be laid at the entire area. After that the blue turf would be laid, which is a time consuming affair but it would be completed by the end of the month or the first week of January,” he maintained. TS Builders is thge same company whcih has laid the turf at the newly-built Johar Town Hockey Stadium where international hockey activity is continuing and only recently the Indian Punjab team and the Dutch veterans played a number of matches against their Pakistan counterparts.
