The Tripura government has decided that the road near Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar's house will be widened. This decision comes days after Dipa declared that she would be returning the BMW car gifted by Sachin Tendulkar as she could not deal with the maintenance costs of running the vehicle on the roads.
As reported in The Hindustan Times (HT), the government has decided to start the project immediately with the repairing work expected to start by next month. The chief engineer of the public works department, Somesh Chandra Das, confirmed the news to the HT, “The road near Dipa’s house falls among some others that we have selected for renovation. Work is expected to begin next month.”
Also read: Dipa Karmakar urges Gymnastics Federation of India to conduct Nationals
The New Indian Express also reported that Bijan Dhar, the CPI (M) state unit secretary informed that Dipa had requested to widen the road earlier, “I was told the road (near Dipa’s house) will be revamped following her request to the mayor and Urban Development Minister in this regard." On being asked about the expenses for the project, he replied that the total expenditure of the government should be around Rs.70 lakh to Rs.80 lakh for the project.
The 23-year-old, who became India's first ever female gymnast at the Rio Olympics earlier in the year, was presented with the brand new luxury car. Although she missed an Olympic medal by a whisker, coming fourth in her event, she was rewarded for her commendable performance in Brazil.
As reported earlier, Dipa had informed that although it was a dream come true for her to receive a BMW from cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar, she could not keep the gift due to maintenance issues. However, the Badminton Association of Hyderabad has promised to reimburse her with a cash prize equivalent to the price of the BMW.
Also read: Indian Olympian Dipa Karmakar to return Sachin Tendulkar's gift
Tendulkar, who was India's goodwill ambassador at the Rio Olympics, had handed over the keys to the luxury vehicles to four sportspersons including PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Pullela Gopichand and Dipa, at an event organised at the Gopichand Badminton Academy.
Dipa also spoke about her issues with keeping the car. "See here in Agartala, we don't have a showroom or service centre of BMW and, therefore, I asked them (members of Badminton Association of Hyderabad) for any other vehicle which is locally available and they also gave their consent for that. Other than this there is no other issue," she said.
