No entry fee for regular visitors at Noida stadium

The Noida Authority has announced that no entrance fee to the Noida Stadium will be charged to regular visitors including morning walkers and joggers even after the privatisation of the stadium.

The privatisation plan of the stadium had faced stiff opposition from residents as they feared that there will be an entrance fee to enter the sports facility.

But, plans to privatise the stadium still remains on the cards. The Authority has the plans to hand over all the sports activities and stadium to a private company who will be running it on a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

RK Mishra, the additional chief executive officer of Noida Authority said, "We received several complaints from the parents of students who come for coaching to the stadium. They complained that the coaching is not up to international or even national standards, because of which, they are forced to send their children to other stadiums in Delhi-NCR."

"So, we planned to run the stadium on the PPP model like it happens in Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and other places. After this, the children will get best of coaching at par with the international level or national level," he added.

Mishra informed that the private company will also be responsible for maintenance of the stadium.

"Even after handing over the stadium to a private company, all the decisions related to stadium and fee hike will be taken by the Noida Authority," Mishra added.

But on the other hand, Federation of Noida RWAs (FONRWA) opposed the decision to privatise the stadium. NP Singh, President of FONRWA said that there is no need to give the stadium into a private hand. "The Noida Authority can provide the national or international level coaching to children on its own. They have sufficient funds for it," Singh said.