udhagamandalam almost three years have lapsed since the work on the highaltitude sports training centre with synthetic track commenced at the hadp open ground in ooty yet the synthetic track isnt fully laid the work on which had to be completed in just 12 months as per the contract officials attributed the prolonged delay to the shortage of workforce employed by the contractorearlier syncotts international a private player specialized in developing synthetic athletic tracks was selected for the job through a tender floated by the government the work was subsequently started in october 2016 according to an official with the district sports office member secretary of tamil nadu sports development authority chandra sekhar sakhamuri had inspected the ongoing works recently now we hope that the facility will be ready soon say in two months time the official squarely blamed the contractor for the delay we gave them 12 months to finish the work by taking unpredictable climatic conditions in ooty the contractor is delaying the work as manpower used is comparatively very lessthe hadp open stadium in ooty is the only sports ground in the nilgiris district under the sports development authority of tamil nadu spread across 575 acres the ground is located close to the government botanical garden besides the track the ground houses a footfall ground tennis basketball and volleyball courts and a cricket practice section developed at least 17 years ago the old 400metre track was made of cinderin 2016 a sum of rs 7 crore was sanctioned to convert the cinder track into the synthetic one while rs 5 crore was sanctioned by the central government the remaining rs 2 crore was funded by the hill area development programme hadp it will have six tracks while the length would remain the same the standard length of any international athletic track is 400 metres the official saidno major changes would be however made to the football ground finishing work of the football ground and the synthetic track is pending also four floodlights have to be erected the official saidnormally around 200 to 250 athletes from across the country come here for training as it is a highaltitude training centre