What powers the Kalinga Sports Complex, Bhubaneshwar

At the heart of Bhubaneshwar lies the beautiful Kalinga stadium. The stadium was built in 1978 and is owned by the government of Odisha. It is a multipurpose stadium that can host a variety of outdoor sports including football, athletics, hockey, table tennis, basketball, and swimming.

The stadium is also the home ground of Hockey India League franchise, Kalinga Lancers, and second division I-League club, Samaleswari Sporting Club. One of the greatest achievements of the venue is hosting the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships from 6th to 9th July earlier this year.

Initially, when the stadium was built, it wasn’t adorned with floodlights. However, the Asian Athletic Federation, coupled with Odisha’s sports department, took the matter into their own hands and renovated the stadium with a brand new floodlight system.

The task of refurbishment of the venue was placed in the very able hands of Bajaj Electricals. With their unique lighting solutions, the stadium was festooned with slick polygonal masts that had highly efficient 2KW floodlights luminaire for the purpose of high-quality lighting.

Like every other task in the world, this one also had its hurdles and hiccups – namely, in the lighting design and project execution areas.

In the lighting design area, a huge canopy provided many obstructions to the light path and that gave birth to a huge shadow on the area covering the field of play. Added to that, the symmetry of the four masts aren’t proportional to each other due to the presence of an underground pipeline, water tank and other utilities.

The real challenge was in achieving the light parameters like vertical illumination level with respect to the cameras whilst balancing it with the horizontal illumination level as well as providing the proper consistency and gradient of illuminance level on the playing field.

On the project execution front, the main constraint was the time. The completion time provided to Bajaj for this project was super-tight at 75 days – which brings into account the time between the issue of the receipt of order till commissioning for the Asian Athletics Championship.

The other problem was the presence of other agencies at the site working for the development of the infrastructure of the project. Also, the lack of a high-capacity hydraulic crane in the vicinity of the erection point was a bit of a problem.

The solutions to these problems were also well thought-out by the think-tank at Bajaj Electricals. With relentless efforts by the experts, the engineers managed to light up the arena with 59m high masts along with 2KW luminaire – achieving the international standards and delivering to the client’s requirement in the process.

For solving the project execution problem, the team coordinated extremely well and managed to do their work within their respective timelines. They also did it without interfering with the work of the other agencies whilst also not damaging other property.

For their outstanding work, the government of Odisha showered Bajaj Electricals with words of praise via a letter of appreciation. Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Govt. Of Odisha, Vishal Kumar Dev (IAS), penned the letter acknowledging the fact that Bajaj Electricals managed to finish their work professionally and within the timeframe expected from them.

As a result, the 22nd Asian Athletic Championship began on time – and the spectators witnessed a spectacle!