Dhaka's Abahani field returning to state control, to be opened to public

The Abahani Club Field in Dhaka's Dhanmondi, under Abahani Limited's control for decades, is being brought under government control, with the facility to be transferred from the Ministry of Housing and Public Works to the Ministry of Youth and Sports and opened to the public.

A formal handover ceremony will be held at the public works ministry tomorrow afternoon (17 September), ministry sources said. 

Sources said Abahani Limited Dhaka had been granted a long-term lease but had not paid the lease money for several years.

The government therefore decided to take back control of the playground.

Two memoranda of understanding will be signed at 12:30pm in the public works ministry's conference room at the Bangladesh Secretariat, according to a notice issued by the ministry. 

The ministry said the agreements covered both the Abahani field and the Dhanmondi field between roads 8 and 9, and were intended to ensure their preservation, maintenance and proper management.

Under the government's decision, the Dhanmondi cricket ground will be opened to the public once it comes under the sports ministry. 

According to the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Abahani Limited applied in 1996 for a 99-year lease on 9.76 acres. Most of the land was leased in 1998 and the remaining 0.89 acres in 2010, for the same term, bringing 10.65 acres in total under the lease. 

The lease required the land to be used for sports, training and games. 

It also barred any change to the site's character as a public park, the construction of commercial premises or markets and any building work without ministry approval. 

Over time, however, structures and sports facilities were built across much of the ground. 

Work on the Sheikh Kamal Sports Complex is underway there, with plans for a club office, a swimming pool, a gymnasium and other indoor sports facilities. 

The site was used as a brick kiln in the 1960s before being converted into a playing field. Abahani Krira Chakra, founded in 1972, has used it for training and matches ever since, and it came to be known as the Abahani field. 

The sports ministry has drawn up plans for running the ground once the transfer is complete. 

Officials said it would be used to widen access to sport for the public and to provide training and activities for children and teenagers. 

Sources said the City Club ground and the Kalshi ground in Mirpur would also be placed under the sports ministry, with plans to open both to the public. 

The move would bring several of the capital's significant playing fields out of club and institutional control and into government management for the first time in years. 

To ease the shortage of playing space in Dhaka, the government has also decided to build a modern futsal pitch in every ward, according to a press release issued on 14 March. 

Existing grounds elsewhere in the country are to be preserved and upgraded, and new ones built, with the plan covering sports facilities from small grounds in the capital down to upazila level.