With very few buses, athletes trek to stadium

LONG WALK
Distance between Anna Stadium to TVS Tollgate :1.1 km
Anna Stadium to KK Nagar : 3.8 km
Anna Stadium to Mannarpuram : 2km


AS one rides along the Race Course Road, TVS Tollgate, and KK Nagar in the city, one can see a number of athletes and sports persons from different districts walking in the scorching sun to reach Anna Stadium for various sports events and practice sessions. The bus services are very limited to the Khajamalai area of the city where the stadium is located irking the athletes. The Anna Stadium sports complex, developed by the Sports Authority Development of Tamilnadu (SDAT), with upgrad-ed features attracts sportsmen and women from the other districts, including Pudukkottai, Ariyalur, Karur and Nagapattinam. The stadium hosts pro-grammes every month as part of encouraging sports activities among school and college students. About 300 to 400 participants take part in the programme at the Anna Stadium for any single event. Though the sports hostel, Government Law College, Bharathidasan University (BDU) Annexe campus, and Periyar EVR College are all situated here, very limited number of buses are being operated along the
Anna Stadium in Khajamalai locality.

Sportsmen and enthusiasts arriving from TVS Tollgate, Mannarpuram or even KK Na-gar are to walk all the way to reach the sports complex. One of the girl students from Perambalus S Pooja said that the competitions are held just after they reach the Stadium and all the energy would have been drained in the long walk to reach the stadium. "Most of the time, as we are tired to take part in the games immediately, we settle for the next set of events," she added. M Gunasekaran from Ariyalur reaches Mannarpuram and waits for any two-wheelers passing by to give him a lift.

The trouble caused due to the lack of enough bus services has not been raised with the District Ad-ministration and Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) so far. A street vendor said that there is minimal transport services available to Khajamalai locality and the students practicing sports are always seen walking from Jamal Mohamed College (JMC), about two kms away from the Anna Stadium. A senior official with the Collectorate said that bus operations to Anna Stadium are very limited here.
Source epaper . new indianexpress.com//c/22692678