If the words of MP Chinta Mohan are any indication, a foundation stone will be laid for the temple town's new sports landmark, an international cricket stadium, in another 100 days.
A meeting was organised at SV Medical College here on Friday by bringing together stakeholders like educationists, sports activists, physical directors, politicians and policy makers to moot the idea of developing a cricket stadium of international standards in Tirupati, akin to the ones in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.
The discussion was set in motion by Member of Parliament Chinta Mohan, who announced that a former cricket player and an ardent devotee of Sri Venkateswara had agreed to develop the stadium as a token of reverence. He also admitted that the entire project hinged on the identification of a suitable piece of land in and around the city, which was suffering from the twin problems of paucity of lands and skyrocketing prices.
Dr. Chinta Mohan said that Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, himself a cricket player and a native of the district, would have the final say on identification of the site.
While construction of a cricket stadium requires an estimated 50 acres of land, there are quite smaller chunks of land on SV University, SV Agricultural College (Peruru) and SV Vedic University campuses. The shelved housing project in Avilala tank bed, where the Congress plenary session was conducted in 1992, has 40 acres, but the Supreme Court guidelines against making any permanent structures on it comes in the way.
A 26-acre bit at Vikruthamala village, abutting the international airport project, was also considered.
TTD Executive Officer I.Y.R. Krishna Rao and former Speaker of Assembly Agarala Eswara Reddi said that the stadium would add yet another jewel to the city's crown, while Superintendent of Police (Tirupati Urban) V. Ravinder discussed the infrastructure and traffic-related bottlenecks.
Revenue Divisional Officer A. Prasad made a PowerPoint presentation on the availability of land in various areas and pointed to a private piece of land on Yerpedu-Venkatagiri Road.
