BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has decided to offer live telecast of all the matches from the upcoming Men’s Hockey World Cup to fans across the eastern Indian state through giant LED screens.
An official of the sports and youth services department told Telegraph India that the LED screens would be installed at Puri beach, Janata Maidan, Ekamra Hat, KIIT, and Unit-I Market in Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and other districts of the state.
The Men’s Hockey World Cup will take place at the Kalinga Stadium here between November 28 and December 16.
A sports department official said a replica of the world cup trophy would tour different parts of Odisha with a hockey stick to “measure the heartbeat” from October 14 to November 14.
The government had already launched the “My Heart Beats for Hockey” campaign to garner support for the game across the country. Each time anyone holds the custom-made hockey stick named Heart Beat, it will record his or her heartbeat as a pledge to support hockey.
On Saturday, state chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, during the governing body committee meeting, directed secretaries of departments concerned to review the progress of work on a daily basis.
The review process revealed infrastructure work such as construction of new galleries, increase of seating capacity in existing galleries, relaying of two new turfs, construction and widening of internal roads and entry gates, development of parking space, running of new buses, city branding, landscaping and beautification were all on schedule, a sports department official told the daily.
Padhi also directed to ensure healthy food and water quality, and fire safety in the hotels and the guest houses where the players are scheduled to stay.
Health and tourism department officials have been asked to undertake safety and healthy standards check-up each day at the hotels.
“The renovated stadium will be inaugurated on October 10 with an exhibition match. Several other programmes such as Ekamra Sports Literary Fest will be organised to garner support for the game and the tournament,” Telegraph India quotes a sports department official as having said.
