2023 Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup: Chief Secretary, 5T Secretary review works of Rourkela Hockey Stadium & airport

Rourkela: As the day is approaching for the 2023 Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra and 5T Secretary V.K Pandian visited Rourkela in Sudergarh district and reviewed the ongoing works of the Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium, one of the venues of the tournament, and Rourkela airport today.

R Vineel Krishna, the secretary of the Sports & Youth Services Department and Bhupendra Singh Poonia, the Managing Director (MD) of Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) also joined Mohapatra and Pandian during the review of the infrastructures.

The high-level team of secretaries took stock of the situation and held discussions with the concerned officials regarding both the main and practice hockey stadiums.

License has been issued for conducting the matches at the Rourkela Hockey Stadium following inspection of the Field Hockey Pitches and High Mast Lights.

It is to be noted here that 20 matches of the upcoming 2023 Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup will be played at the Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium. The first match will be played between India and Spain on January 13. However, three practice matches will be played on December 24. Decisions will be taken immediately to strengthen or increase the quality of the infrastructure if any problem is noticed during the practice matches.

On the other hand, Mahapatra hoped that the Rourkela airport will receive the necessary licenses soon as the infrastructure works have reached the final stage.

A total of four flights will be made available for the players and officials during the hockey world cup.

Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary and 5T Secretary tanked the people of the Sundergarh and Rourkela for providing all help and support for constructing world’s biggest hockey stadium within one year.

As the hockey tournament is going to be conducted in Rourkela for the first time, hockey lovers from different parts of the State and outside are expected to go to the Steel City. In view of this, modern parking lots have been made ready. Besides, people will get drinking water and toilet facilities inside the stadium. Big LED screens will be installed for the people outside the stadium, which has a seating capacity of over 20,000 people.