Panaji: Even before the medal ceremony of Mallakhamb had concluded, there was a hustle going on in one corner of the make-shift hanger hosting the event at the Campal Sports Village. The events team managing the venue had little time to breathe as wrestlers from across the country needed to practice for their in the 37th National Games from the next day.
Given the fact that Goa is a small state and building permanent infrastructure for over 40 sports would have put a huge burden, many sports are being organised in three temporary hangers at the Campal Sports Village.
The action began with Weightlifting, Mallakhamb and Pencak Silat and now wrestling, Gatka, Judo and Wushu events will be held over the next 10 days. All these sports require different playing surfaces, technical provisions and layouts and the team handling these venues have just under 24 hours after every event to turn things around.
Even the permanent structure like Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium and Campal Indoor stadium in Panaji or the Peddem Indoor stadium are being used to host multiple sports. However, these are huge facilities with many rooms for officials, broadcast requirements etc and hence slightly easier to manage.
But the temporary hangers have to pack in everything from the Field of Play (FOP), closets for officials, television crew, physiotherapy and treatment area, practice and warm up arena and much more. Which also means that there are multiple agencies with many labourers and technical officials working at the same time to get the venue ready in time for competitions.
In Goa, the job is being handled by three agencies have been involved in building the facilties at Campal Sports Village. Hanger-1 is of 50 by 40 meters in size, Hanger-2 is 70 by 40 meters while Hanger-3 is 85 by 40 meters. Each hanger was build thinking of the Games it is going to host and has was erected in 4-5 days.
When asked about how much time and effort it will take to change the facilities needed for the next sport to start, Senior Area and Venue Operations Manager at Campal, Krishna said, “It depends on the game. There are some games for which it takes just one night to prepare the Hanger. Some may need 48 hours depending on the demands for FOP.”
About 30-40 workers would be employed with the task of dismantling the facilities for the earlier sport and then rebuild for the new one. “The Director of Competitions (DOC) of each sport measures the floor and then we prepare the FOP accordingly. Also, with every changing game, practice areas have to be created in the Hangers.”
