PAU sports facility to soon get new hockey turf
Ludhiana: After over 13 years, the
synthetic turf
at
Olympian Prithipal Singh
Hockey Stadium in Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) is being replaced. The old turf has been removed, and the bitumen below is being removed before it is relaid.
Constructed in 1989, the stadium was named in the honour of Olympian Prithipal Singh, who had captained India to a bronze medal at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
It first received a synthetic astroturf surface in 1999, imported from the Netherlands. The last turf replacement took place in 2011, and the old surface was later repurposed for use in Sangrur. The facility, with a spectator capacity of around 10,000, is one of Punjab's key hockey training and competition grounds. It's currently being managed jointly by PAU and the Punjab sports department. Currently, 67 players across different age groups under-12, under-14, under-17, and under-19 from the sports department train at the stadium. During evening sessions, the number of players, including those from PAU and other outside academies, rises to approximately 150, according to coach Sukhbir Singh Dhaliwal. Speaking about the need for turf replacement, he said, "Over time, it had become uneven with certain areas depressed and others raised that compromised both player safety and performance," he said. While the renovation work is underway, training has temporarily been shifted to Malwa Khalsa School. The stadium has a history of hosting hockey tournaments, including All India Inter-University Championships in 2000 and 2006 in addition to other national-level tournaments and camps. In 2021, the stadium underwent additional upgrades worth Rs83 lakh under the Smart City Mission. These included renovation of changing rooms and washrooms, installation of sprinklers, new light poles, and a chain-linked fence. Dhaliwal said that if the work continues on schedule, players are expected to return to the facility by June.
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