Field Of Dreams: Kerala's Civic Body Turns Garbage Dump Into Sports Complex
Thrissur, Kerala: Three decades ago, a garbage-filled Laloor neighborhood in Thrissur, Kerala is now a multipurpose facility featuring badminton, volleyball, and basketball courts, a tennis turf, a swimming pool, and a football ground. Thanks to the state government and Thrissur civic body, the project transformed a garbage pile into a state-of-the-art sports complex in the region, Indian Express reports
The Rs 59-crore project has completed its first phase with an indoor stadium with a seating capacity of 5,000. The facility has three badminton courts and one each for volleyball and basketball.
Read Also: KIIFB: The Development Fuel – Kerala Approved Projects Worth Rs 90,562 Crore Since 2016-17
There is a football court with synthetic turf, a tennis turf, swimming pool and administrative block. It consists of modern dressing rooms, office chambers, a VIP lounge and other basic amenities have also come up. The complex will be managed by the state’s sports and youth affairs department.
Named after Thrissur’s football legend I. M. Vijayan, the complex is known as I. M. Vijayan Sports Complex. Once suffocating with increasing garbages piling up, the 14-acre landfill is now a major relief for the neighborhood who suffered years of noxious gases from the legacy waste which could be smelled from kilometers away.
Read Also: ‘No Political Or Religious Events In Public Places’: Oman After Kerala CM’s Welcome Procession Row
The transformation emanates from an election promise made by CPI leader V. S. Sunil Kumar, who contested as the LDF candidate from Thrissur in the 2016 Assembly elections. After winning, Kumar became agriculture minister in the 2016 LDF government. He said the government’s 2016-17 Budget had announced sports complexes in various centers with funding from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the state agency for infrastructure development through off-budget borrowings.
Since 1998, the residents in Laloor have been struggling with waste dumping, and with frequent agitations, the region has turned into a battleground, drawing public attention. The Thrissur Corporation stopped fresh dumping in 2012 on the landfill in response to the mounting protests.
The civic body then launched the Laloor Model Project for solid waste management. Though it failed to take off, the introduction of ‘Haritha Karma Sena,’ a group of women employed to collect non-degradable domestic waste, which turned out to be a game-changer.
The corporation later eventually spent Rs 5 crore to remove and segregate 60,000 cubic metres of waste, clearing the area for a sports complex. Notably, it also has distributed bio-bins in 20,000 out of 80,000 households within the city limits, with officials saying the remaining will be covered soon.
P. K. Shajan, the current municipal councilor representing Laloor, says Thrissur is the only local body in Kerala where a crematorium for animals was opened as part of waste management. ‘Corporation wanted to construct a sports complex, for which the dumping ground at Laloor was suggested as it owned the trenching ground, the news portal quated the councilor.
The Corporation handed over the 14 acres of land for the sports complex, paving the way for the project’s realisation, he added.
