Land halts Lucknow sports complex bid

LDA has also to exchange a 20-acre land,acquired along Amar Shaheed Path for Gomti Nagar Extension scheme,to connect the stadium complex better with the Amar Shaheed Path.

“The 13-acre private land inside the sports complex area falls in such a way that it could affect the utilisation of more than 40 acres of land of the sports complex. So the private land would be taken up for stadium project and its landowner would be given separate land or compensation near Sultanpur Road in exchange,” said an LDA official.

“The 20-acre land acquired along Amar Shaheed Path is of institutional use. This land will be merged into the sports complex land and a same area of land would be cut out from the sports complex land for institutional development near Sultanpur Road. It will give a better connectivity to the sports complex with Amar Shaheed Path,” he said.

This land exchange exercise has been under process for past one year. “Earlier,it was decided to execute the land exchange after awarding the sports complex project to any developer. But now it has been decided to resolve the land issues before awarding the project,” he said.

In the first phase of bidding,a high-level committee under Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) had shortlisted four companies after evaluation of their Request for Qualification (RFQ) in December 2010. These four companies including—Madhucon,DSC Limited,Gammon India and JP Sports— were given RFQ draft on January 15 and were asked to submit it on March 16. The bid submission date was first postponed to April 7 and now the deadline has been postponed once again to May 3.

Sources said that in a pre-bid meeting held on April 4,it was decided to schedule the last date for submission of RFP on May 3,opening of proposal enclosures on May 4,opening of financial proposals on May 13 and issue of Letter of Intent (LoI) to selected develop on June 9.

The estimated cost of the projects is Rs 400 crore. About 60-acre land of total project area would be used for development of cricket stadium and grounds for hockey and football. Facilities for basketball,gymnastics,lawn tennis and aquatics will also be developed in this area. The remaining 57-acre land would be used for commercial and residential activities.

LDA Secretary Anand Kumar Singh said,“Schedule for RFQ submission has been revised but only vice-chairman could speak on this matter.” Vice-chairman Rajeev Agarwal was not available for comment.