Following is an excerpt from a report in odishatoday.com.

"I have already talked with BCCI president Sharad Pawar requesting him to release funds for the infrastructure development of the Railway Cricket Stadium here in Orissa ," Railway Board Chairman and BCCI member Kalyan Coomar Jena said after inaugurating the Stadium here on Monday.

With inauguration of the Stadium, OCA and other cricket bodies could now host Ranji Trophy and other domestic cricket matches in the stadium. And after the expansion work got over, the Stadium could be a venue for the One-Day Internationals.

Railway sources said that the gallery would be made on lines of gallery that are being available in New Zealand.

"We have planned to make the Stadium as world class and facilities would be available on standards of other International venues," Jena, who is one among the policy maker of BCCI, said.

"I also discussed the matter with BCCI Treasure N Srinivasan and I hope, the country’s apex cricket body would release funds under its infrastructure development sachems, he added.

The Stadium is spread over 25 acres of land near here at Railway Workshop having a cricket ground with a boundary of 81 meters radius.

The Railway officials claimed that it would the biggest ever cricket ground in the world. The out field of the ground is planted with baramunda grass. In the first phase, Railway had released Rs 1.5 crore and in the second phase, the Ministry has sanctioned Rs 3 crore for the expansion of the Railway Stadium.

Meanwhile, OCA has announced to release a sum of Rs 1 crore in the initial phase, which will be spent on infrastructure development.