GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad Development Authority ( GDA ) has asked the UP Cricket Association to pay up Rs 7.5 crore as acquisition fee for which work on a cricket stadium has been stalled for over a year now.The agency has said it won’t approve the map for the proposed stadium near Raj Nagar Extension unless the payment is made. A month ago, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had said the stadium would go on to become the biggest in the country.“The UP Cricket Association can have the option of submitting the acquisition fee ‘under protest’, which means that even though they are depositing the fee, they are so doing after raising an objection,” said Kanchan Verma, vice-chairperson of the GDA. “The matter can always be referred to the state government. If it decides in favour of the association, the fee could be returned,” she added.The GDA had linked the approval of the map with the acquisition fee because CAG had raised an objection when the development agency had initially decided to waive the acquisition fee.Rakesh Mishra, president of the Ghaziabad Cricket Association and member of the UPCA , said that after the chief minister’s announcement, talks on the stadium were at least back on track.“We had a discussion with the vice-chairperson, who has suggested some options, including paying ‘under protest’, to break the impasse,” said Mishra.The association has been reluctant to pay up the acquisition fee on the ground that 34 acres had been acquired directly from farmers for the stadium and the GDA had no role in it. The association said it had plans to invest about Rs 500 crore for developing the stadium, for which they are in talks with the makers of Amsterdam Arena stadium. The Ghaziabad stadium will have a seating capacity of 75,000.The UPCA had acquired 34 acres from farmers in Morti village at a cost of Rs 80 crore. The UPCA has said it has adequately compensated the farmers for the land taken from them.Rakesh Mishra said the stadium would miss its 2019 deadline. “Members of the UPCA had recently met industrial development minister Satish Mahana over the delay and were assured that hurdles would be cleared. Now, when the chief minister has himself spoken about it, I am certain that physical work will start soon,” Mishra had said earlier.

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