Karnataka Government Grants Additional 15 Acres To BCCI For New NCA Facility
Sep 2, 2017 at 12:51 PM
Karnataka, on Friday (September 1) finally granted 15 acres of land, over and above the current amount of 25, for a new National Cricket Academy (NCA) facility in Bangalore. Earlier this year in May, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had registered for 25 acres in addition to requesting for the 25 acres more. However, with Karnataka granting 15 acres now, the NCA has now got a consolidated space of 40 acres much to the relief of the BCCI who have relentlessly trying to move the cricket academy out of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium since 2005.
The Chinnaswamy Stadium has been the home to the college since its establishment in the city in 2000. Previously in 2010, BCCI had purchased 49 acres of land from Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) for Rs 50 crore. But the High Court called it illegal after a string of public interest litigation in 2013.
Expressing his delight over the development, BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary said the BCCI is grateful to the Karnataka government for granting the land.
“I’m grateful to the government of Karnataka on behalf of the BCCI. They have agreed and have finally given us another 15 acres in the same plot, which means we have an amalgamated total area of 40 acres. Today was the final registration,” Choudhary said.
The land has been granted in the Devanahalli Aerospace Park area, which is located in Arebinnamangala village in Bangalore North taluk and while Choudhary said the board was aiming at the Nandi Hills area, it changed the plans this time around.
“While the original parcel of land was aimed at the Nandi Hills area, this time around we started focusing on Devanahalli Aerospace Park. It’s in a very, very developed area, vis-a-vis what we had originally intended to have. It’s almost a rectangle which means it will lend itself very well to good designing of facilities inside that. Two sides of this rectangle will have a 45 metre road. So all that is developed area. We had actually asked for 25 more…we did not want to feel constrained for space at any point of time,” he added.
Speaking of the problems the BCCI said in its relentless pursuit of shifting the Academy since the last 12 years, Choudhary further added:
“For the last 12 years, we had been waiting for a separate parcel of land for NCA and the BCCI had even paid 50 crores for this purpose way back in 2005. Unfortunately this had remained in a limbo and we began fresh efforts last year.”
“I intend to draft a mail this evening itself, sending it to to members of the NCA committee, important functionaries in the BCCI and also the COA. Once we identify our requirements, we’ll have an NCA meeting. We will then start the appointment of a consultant, which I would love to be one of the finest in the world, the most creative. Our centre of excellence, as we will eventually know it, should not be second to any. It should be a cut above the best in the world,” he added.