Astroturf yet to be laid in the ground

ISLAMABAD: The lone Hockey Stadium in Rawalpindi has to wait a  little while longer, to get an Astroturf to be laid there.

According to sources, a Holland based company Green Fields Sports Turf Systems’ came to the city to lay an Astroturf in the stadium named after legendary Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh but went back without doing so. GreenFields Sports Turf Systems had identified faults in the field on which the turf was to be laid which needs to be repaired. The Astroturf project with an estimated cost of Rs 149 million was supposed to be laid some three years ago.



However, despite tall claims by the authorities, the project could not materialise. When contacted, District Sports Officer (DSO) Rawalpindi Abdul Waheed Babar admitted that GreenFields Sports Turf Systems team had gone back without laying astro-turf in the stadium due to faults in the field. “The faults in the field would be rectified this month and Astroturf would hopefully be laid in August,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2017.