The Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, which is hosting the fourth T20I between India and Australia on Friday, will be relying on generators to power the floodlights. Reason? Unpaid electricity bills going back all the way to 2009 and reportedly totalling Rs 3.16 crore.
How ridiculous the situation is can be gleened form the fact that the stadium’s power supply was disconnected five years ago (emphasis ours). Consequently, the floodlights will be exclusively powered by generators. In an attempt to (yet again) “temporarily” address this issue, the Chhattisgarh State Cricket Association requested a temporary connection. The hitch here is that this connection only provides power to the spectators’ gallery and the boxes, therefore the need for generators for the floodlights.
Media reports state that Ashok Khandelwal, the in-charge of Raipur Rural Circle, has requested an increase in the power of the temporary connection from 200 KV to 1000 KV. This is to ensure that the floodlights can function throughout the contest. While the request had reportedly been approved, work was still to commence just hours before the 7.00 pm start time for the game to commence.
Could the match be disrupted? Very little chance of that happening as India’s famed ingenuity will ensure that a resolution will be arrived at, even if that happens just minutes ahead of the game’s official start.
