Goenka group to construct football stadium, academy in city

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (RPSG) announced to set up a football stadium in Kolkata on Friday. A football academy, along with a three-star hotel and a hostel, will also be built just adjacent to the stadium. The stadium will be built as a self-sustaining model, which will be the first of its kind in India.

“The project, which will solely be funded by the company, is expected to be initiated in the near future,” said Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman of RPSG, at a press conference on Friday.

With the setting up of the new stadium, Atlético de Kolkata, the Indian Super league (ISL) football franchise co-owned by Goenka, is set to get a new training ground. However, their home ground will remain the same, i.e. Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan at Salt Lake, the chairman added.

“We want to build a stadium. The land has been identified. It will be in Kolkata,” said Goenka, a co-owner of Kolkata Games and Sports Pvt Ltd, the company which owns Atlético de Kolkata. The other owners of the franchise are former Indian cricket team skipper and president of Cricket Association of Bengal Sourav Ganguly, Harshavardhan Neotia and Utsav Parekh.

The location of the stadium was not divulged by the RPSG Chairman but he confirmed that it will be built in Kolkata. “It will be a small stadium in the beginning, but later it will be made bigger. A 120-room three-star hotel and a hostel for young football trainees will also be there. The investment would be around Rs 500 crore,” said Goenka.

“There are various models of famous stadiums in various parts of the world. Designers and international experts will plan the new stadium. “The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds of our companies will pay for the construction. The first part of the academy will start within 12 months of the inception of the work,” he added.

Meanwhile, the stakeholders of Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) Ltd – the power distribution company in the city owned by RPSG – at their 38th Annual General Meeting on Friday, approved the annual report and audited accounts for the fiscal year which concluded on March 31, 2016. The revenue was seen to have increased by 4.92 per cent, compared to last year, to reach Rs 6493.07 crore. The total income also grew by 5.46 per cent to reach Rs 6616.18 crore for the same fiscal year.

Dhariwal Infrastructure Limited (DIL), a subsidiary of CESC Ltd, operates a 600 MW coal-fired thermal power project in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra.

The first unit of 300 MW began its commercial operation in February 2014, whereas the second unit went into commercial operation in August 2014. The Chandrapur power station recently signed a fuel supply agreement with South Eastern Coalfield Ltd.

“DIL has also succeeded in signing another agreement to supply power to Noida Power Company Ltd (NPCL), which distributes electricity in Uttar Pradesh. The dry fly ash from Haldia Energy Ltd is being exported to Bangladesh by river through specially-designed barges,” Goenka said. He also said that Spencer’s Retail, a multi-format retailer owned by company, will offer a service which will help customers to seamlessly shop both offline and online.

“We have already launched the beta version of this service for employees of our group and selected customers in Kolkata. This facility will initially be available to retail customers in Kolkata on websites and apps,” he further added.