IND vs AUS: No Electricity At Stadium Hosting 4th T20I today; Bill 3.16cr Not Paid

The IND vs AUS fourth T20 international will be played today at Raipur's Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh stadium. But there is no electricity in parts of the stadium, an electricity bill which hasn't been paid since 2009. The stadium has a huge bill of ₹ 3.16 crore to be paid, due to which the electricity connection was cut 5 years ago. A temporary connection was installed at the request of the Chhattisgarh State Cricket Association, but that only covers the spectators' gallery and boxes. The floodlights would need to be run using a generator.

Also Read: India vs South Africa: BCCI announces India squads for South Africa tour: No Rohit, Kohli in White-ball Squads

At present, the capacity of the temporary connection is 200 KV. An application to upgrade it to 1 thousand KV has been approved, but the work hasn't started yet.

After the construction of the stadium, its maintenance was handed over to the Public Works Department (PWD), while the remaining expenses were to be borne by the Sports Department. The electricity company sent several notices to PWD and Sports Department for clearance of dues, but no payment has been made yet. Three international cricket matches have been organized in the stadium since the power connection was cut in 2018.

"As far as the stadium lights are concerned, I don't know how much bill is outstanding but a temporary connection has been taken in the name of CSCS," Mr Parihar said.