**Bhubaneswar:** In a major setback to the budding swimmers of the capital city, the State Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry has taken a decision to close down the main swimming pool and the diving pool of the Kalinga Stadium to re-model it for the upcoming Hockey World Cup in 2018.
Officially, all the activities of the pool were shut down from Wednesday.
BJD MP from Dhenkanal, Tathagata Satpathy expressed his concerns regarding this on his twitter handle.
Friends called from Bhubaneswar all worried that the 2 main swimming pools at Kalinga stadium are to be demolished 2moro. For WC Hockey! pic.twitter.com/ynoCgSZZUm
— Office of T Satpathy (@SatpathyLive) September 20, 2017
Why on earth would any one do this? Kids learn swimming there. Do PPP for maintenance instead.vehemently oppose this move of the state Govt.
— Office of T Satpathy (@SatpathyLive) September 20, 2017
Meanwhile, the officials are trying to downplay the whole episode. According to the State Sports Secretary Vishal Dev, the closing of the swimming pool is just a temporary arrangement as there will be setting up of a Spector stand for the hockey tournament. The swimming pool will be re-opened after few months.
According to the sources, the swimming pool will be first destroyed for the construction of the spectator stand, and of it is re-built again it would incur huge costs.