NEW DELHI: Work of sprucing up the 55,000-capacity Nehru Stadium, which will host eight matches including the Indian team’s league fixtures, is still on, despite AIFF chief Praful Patel's declaration earlier this week that India was 100 per cent ready to host the Under 17 FIFA World Cup from 6 October 2017.
A Tribune report points out that local contractors are still hard at work repairing the synthetic athletics turf which runs around the field of play. Significant work remains to be done in the most visible parts of the stadium, the report says. Construction material lay scattered outside at least three entry gates of the stadium and groundsmen were seen 'laying down artificial synthetic grass to cover the ugly, broken patches of the synthetic track', according to the report
In August this year, the World Cup’s local organising committee (LOC) had cleared all six venues to host the matches, after expressing satisfaction over the progress of work. The Nehru Stadium was renovated just before the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010 at a cost of Rs9.61 billion. FIFA is spending Rs900 million on the organisational part of the tournament. The Central government has given an additional Rs 1.20 billion to the six state governments hosting the matches, to be spent on the development of infrastructure.
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