Ready for over 1 year, Rakh Bagh squash court yet to be opened

The squash court at Rakh Bagh is lying non-functional despite being completed in January last year. The sports enthusiasts attribute it to the apathetic attitude of the municipal corporation (MC).

According to the MC officials, they had invited bidders to run the squash court but no one came forward to show interest in it.

An official of the sports department, seeking anonymity, said, “Fund crunch has often been cited as the reason for not completing the project on time but now as the almost all major modalities with regard to physical structure are already taken care of, no prospective party is coming forward to run the sporting facility at Rakh Bagh. It is a sheer misuse of public money. The money spent on the squash court could be spent on building infrastructure for medal winning games.”

Harry, one of the squash players in the city who is being trained at one of the academies in Chandigarh, said, “There are players for squash in the city but in the absence of a proper academy, they have to look for other options. Authorities must devise a comprehensive plan to start an academy in the city so that players do not have to move out to pursue the game professionally.”

MC additional commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said, “We floated advertisement for a public-private-partnership (PPP) mode but no party or squash player or group came forward. It is ready since January 2014 but game did not pick up here. We are still waiting for a potential bidder who can take it up”.

It is worth mentioning here that the foundation stone for the squash hall was laid way back in 2002, but it saw the light of the day in January last year.