The R400-crore international-level cricket stadium cum sports complex in Lucknow may finally see the light of the day. The project, which will be built as per the latest guidelines issued by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and will have a seating capacity of 50,000 spectators on Design, Finance, Construct, Operate and Maintain (DFCOM) basis under PPP, has elicited response from as many as seven companies, including infrastructure majors such as JP Sports International, DSC, Gammon India, Madhucon Projects, IL&FS, NCC and Patel & APCO consortium.

In a meeting held on Wednesday, Deloitte, the consultant for the project, informed the state government officials about some modifications made in the bidding documents, which would be in line with the modified RFQ.

To come up on 137 acres, the sports complex is part of the state government?s efforts to attract private investment in the state. While the sports complex would come up on 80 acres of land, 57 acres would be used for developing a township adjacent to it.

Talking to FE, an official of the Lucknow Development Authority, the nodal agency for this project, said the complex is being implemented under the Integrated Urban Rejuvenation Plan (IURP) scheme for selected cities of the state. ?Apart from a world-class cricket stadium, the complex will also have a hockey stadium, with a capacity of seating 15,000 people, a tennis complex with 1,000 seat capacity, an indoor stadium which can seat 2,500 people and an aquatics centre which can seat 1,000 people. Apart from this, we have also added the development of a synthetic track and field event infrastructure,? he said.

As regards the real estate project that would come up on the remaining 57 acres of land, the land use has been revised to allocate a minimum 25% area to residential purposes, while a maximum 75% has been set aside for commercial, institutional and hospitality sector.

The project gains significance as the state government has decided to provide the entire 137 acres of land for the project free of cost. As the project would be coming up at the prime location of Gomti Nagar, the cost of the land that is being offered for free by the state government is expected to cost not less than R250 crore.

The pre-bid conference for the project is expected to be held on September 29 while the final bid submission date has been fixed for October 21.

?While the stadium will have a lease of 35 years, the township will ge given on a lease for 99 years,? said the official.