| Sports |
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| Another tender tantrum rocks hockey and athletics |
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| The dilapidated astro hockey turf. Pic by Sanka Vidanagama |
`A tender to lay and maintain the Artificial Hockey Turf ground and a 400 metre eight lane Synthetic track at Torrington has been cancelled in a controversial manner without giving reasons for those bid for the two tenders.
The Department of Sports Development which comes under the purview of the Sports Ministry had called the Tender through the State Engineering Corporation (SEC) last month and the Tender was due to be opened this week, but when the company representatives who bid for the tender called over they were informed that the Tender has been cancelled.
A spokesman for the SEC confirmed to The Sunday Times that the Tender had been cancelled, but said that it was due to a directive from the client – the Department of Sports Development.
The bidders were turned away saying their money paid for the tender would be refunded.
Under the tender the Hockey Turf which is in a state of neglect was to be fully replaced and a new synthetic track was due to be laid. Under the proposed project the Hockey turf was due to cost Rs. 60 million and the athletic track Rs. 75 million and both projects completed in three months.
This was the second time that tenders for the Hockey Turf had been called and cancelled within a year.
The Director General of Sports Development, Bandula Dahanayake contacted by The Sunday Times claimed he was unaware of the cancellation of the two tenders.
Meanwhile, a day after the tenders were cancelled the State Engineering Corporation had commenced sending emails to foreign companies seeking their services to lay the Hockey track.
The email sent out by Chairman SEC, Mr. B.V.S.K de Silva said that the Corporation has received several projects to construct Turf Grounds in Sri Lanka Therefore hope to obtain sole agency from reputed companies to distribute the required materials in Sri Lanka.
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| Gamini Lokuge Minister |
“At the moment, we have received a project for supply, laying, testing, commissioning and maintenance of Synthetic Artificial Turf including shockpad as per Engineer's approval, on sportcrete approved by International Hockey Federation. The proposed area is approx 6688 Sq. Mtrs. , and the rate shall be included to maintain a slope of 0.5%. Therefore, we are willing to get the service of your company, as your company is under IHF certification”, the email said.
The SEC has called the companies to send quotations under IHF specifications.
In answer to the above Minister of Sports and Recreation Gamini Lokuge retorted “I agree the facilities are getting neglected. Every time we call up a tender to get things done from an overseas entrepreneur somehow it gets squashed by the tender board. As a result we have decided to give all our development work to local bodies. That is why this job handed over to the State Engineering Corporation. They did a very satisfactory job with the Sugathadasa Stadium redevelopment work, and that is the very reason that we entrusted them with the redevelopment matters of these facilities. But, subsequently we learned that they too were going call up for tenders from an overseas company. That is not what we wanted. As a result we decided to halt the tender”.
SEC Chairman Mr. de Silva was overseas and the General Manager Rohan de Silva was not available for comment regarding the email circulated by the Chairman.
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