Hockey turf at SAI inaugurated

The green synthetic hockey pitch, to be utilised as a major training avenue for the national men’s team, was inaugurated at the Sports Authority of India, Southern Centre, here on Monday.

The Director General of SAI, Injeti Srinivas, dedicated the pitch to the talented players and coaches in the country. “I hope with such state of the art facilities, the quality of the game in this country will improve,” he said.

The Southern Centre had laid the foundation stone for two pitches –– green and blue in June. The green surface was planned to be made ready for training purpose by the end of June.

The SAI officials said 90 percent of the work has been completed and the pitch is all set to be used for training. Apart from the 700 lux floodlights and construction of change rooms, a fully-automated pop-up sprinkler system was also installed on the pitch. Work on building two video towers is in progress. The total budget for laying of the pitch is Rs 5.71 crore.

The national team — in New Zealand for a test series —  is expected to be here later this month. The ground work for the blue pitch, similar to the one to be used at the Rio Olympics next year, is in progress.