The Minister looked stunned after seeing the track which had become totally unusable. “This is a sad situation. We can see that something had gone extremely wrong here. I will meet all the relevant parties including the contractors, Gahakola Landscaping who were in charge of the laying of this synthetic track next week. There will be engineers and professionals from the University of Moratuwa too. A big sum of money was spent in this regard and the government can not spend anymore to have a temporary solution. My opinion is to re-lay the track completely and the Gahakola Landscaping will have to take care of it because the government cannot spend money on this matter once again.”

The Managing Director of Gahakola Landscaping Dharmasiri Rahubadda who was in charge of laying the track, was also present at the occasion and the Minister asked him why this had happened. “We did all constructions according to specifications given to us by the engineers in charge of the project. The track has been damaged due to excessive usage. We built this track as a competition venue. Not as a practice venue,” he said.

However Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera said that he is not satisfied with his answer and the country cannot invest on separate tracks for practices and competitions at this moment and a new track has to be laid fulfilling the demand for future competitions and practices as soon as possible.

In addition to the Sugathadasa Outdoor Stadium, Minister also inspected the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium and Sports Hotel during his visit.

We don’t deserve to be blamed – MD Gahakola Landscaping Dharmasiri Rahubadda said that they are not the ones to be blamed in this regard. We have delivered what the Ministry asked for.

“They needed a quality track for competitions, not practices. There is a separate track for practices. We provided a track according to highest standards and this track was among the best in the world. We used the “Sandwich” method of which a synthetic surface was laid over the inner layers. Excessive use ruined the track,” he says.

“Most of the international tracks are strictly prohibited for practices. In most occasions, even a chewing gum or any other object which can damage the tracks are strictly prohibited. This track had been used for various things other than athletics over the past few years. Even military parades have been conducted here. So how come the track cannot be damaged? Some coaches tell their athletes to use spikes which measures 9 mm instead of 6 mm or 7mm for better performances. But this damages the track.”

Ultimately, I am the one who has lost here. I have not been fully paid for the track-laying work.

(dailynews.lk)