File photo of Pakistan's Second National Junior Cycling Championship at the Lahore Velodrome. Despite securing a huge grant for its reconstruction from the government in 2005, the Pakistan Cycling Federation is yet to receive a final clearance on the project from the Pakistan Sports Board. -Photo by APP

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Sports on Saturday expressed grave concern over the state of the country's only velodrome in Lahore and directed Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to provide all details of the project so that bottlenecks in its reconstruction could be removed.

The committee met under the chairmanship of Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi at the Parliament House and was attended by various members including officials of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF).

The Secretary PCF, Idris Haider Khawaja, told the meeting that in November 2005, an amount of Rs 49 million was sanctioned by the government for  the reconstruction of the Cycling Velodrome at Nishtar Sports Complex  but work on the project had not been undertaken yet.

“The velodrome is incomplete and in a very bad condition. Work on it has excessively been delayed, but despite all this our achievements in the sport are remarkable. This velodrome was constructed in 1954, so you can imagine its state,” he said.

He said the PSB had informed that execution of the project could not be started due to a dispute raised by the Government of Punjab.

Khawaja, however, denied the claim and said the government of Punjab had no objection and that only a Lease Agreement needed to be signed by the PSB.

“Despite our repeated requests no body has been deputed for the purpose,” he said.

Khawaja also informed that the PSB had 142 kanals under its possession at the Complex but out of those 60 kanals were leased out to a foreign firm for car parking.

“That firm has a commercial plaza nearby and it has constructed an office at PSB's land. But ironically the board has not been able to initiate work on its own project,” he maintained.

The Director General PSB Ameer Hamza Gilani in return denied the claims of the cycling federation and said that the land was still in possession of the board. He agreed that the previous provincial government had leased out the said land to the foreign firm for car parking but now the work on that had been stopped.

The members of the committee were of the view that commercial people had no right to encroach on PSB's land.

Senator Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi directed the PSB to provide all details of the project to committee in its next meeting to be held on January, 24.