8 years later, plan for cricket stadium in Bathinda scrapped.

The transfer of Punjab Agricultural University’s (PAU’s) land in Bathinda to set up an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will also mark the cancellation of CM Parkash Singh Badal’s dream project of an international cricket stadium.
Badal had laid the foundation stone for the stadium in 2007. However, now a portion of the 25-acre land will be transferred to the health department.

The land, owned by PAU, was transferred to the sports department for the stadium. Now as per the documents with The Sunday Express- two acres will be given to the health department and the rest for the Centre’s fisheries research institute.
Describing the stadium as a gift to the people of Bathinda, Badal had said the international stadium will come up by 2009. However, it never took off.

According to a letter (a copy of which is with The Sunday Express) from deputy commissioner Basant Garg dated August 11, 2015, to chief secretary, sports and youth affairs, Punjab, the portion of land will be transferred to set up an AIIMS.
PAU, which earlier gave 25 acres for the stadium in 2007, is giving another 175 acres for the AIIMS in Bathinda.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Garg said there was no response from the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA).

“The land cannot be kept vacant for a project that never started. The PCA was to build a stadium in Bathinda, but we never got any communication from them. So, we proposed that the land be transferred. While 2 acres 5 canals and 11 marla of the land has been proposed for AIIMS, the rest 23 acres is proposed for the Centre’s project. We are yet to get a final nod for the fisheries institute,” he said.

Meanwhile, PCA secretary G S Walia said there was no response from the government. “We had submitted a proposal when the CM talked of setting up the stadium. It was their prerogative to respond. But they didn’t. We are now concentrating on the stadium proposed at Mullanpur near Chandigarh. The Bathinda stadium is dropped for now. We can reconsider it if the government steps up to talk,” he said.

Indian Express