Comprehensive rehabilitation of the main pitch of the National Stadium, Abuja has begun.

Work on the stadium began last week, with the contractors who built the stadium Julius Berger Plc, being in charge of the rehabilitation effort.

The Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Bolaji Abdullahi, had assured Nigerians in December 2012 of total rehabilitation of the stadium, starting this, “We have concluded arrangements with Julius Berger to bring alive the pitch of the main bowl and training grounds in January, after the holidays.”

The scope of work includes removal and replacement of the topsoil, planting the approved species of grass, well-watered and nourished until roots are established, maintenance of the pitch, including watering and trimming of the grass for three months.

The terms of the contract also requires Julius Berger to provide new water sprinklers for the stadium.

According to the contractors, work on the stadium would be completed in late February, while the maintenance would take an additional three months.

It is expected that the stadium will be ready for use in late May or early June 2012.

Director of Facilities at the NSC, Ibrahim Shehu, said that systems have been put in place to ensure top-grade maintenance of the stadium when the contractors finish their work.

“The problem we had in the past was as a result of theft of the power cable which supplied power to the stadium. With the lack of electricity, we could not power the water pumps and so could not wet the grass. Now all those problems have been solved. We will make sure that the stadium is of international standard at all times,” Shehu said.

source: http://odili.net/news/source/2013/jan/15/802.html