Odisha Plumbers Help Qatar Build Infra For FIFA World Cup

Bhubaneswar: Amid all the criticism surrounding FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Qatar on Sunday, 2500 plumbers from Odisha’s Kendrapada district have been making hay in sanitary works and earning handsomely.

They have mostly been engaged by HBK Engineering, Trident, L&T and other construction companies since December 2010 when Qatar was chosen to host the World Cup, and working at the stadiums and other infrastructure meant to accommodate players and staff at various locations.

Samar Sahoo, an immigration consultant and manager of Mahavir Travels in Pattamundai, told the media that he had arranged visas and other travel documents for around 500 plumbers in the district. “Around 400  plumbers, fitters and foremen from the district were engaged by the construction company for sanitary works at Lusail Stadium,” Biswanath Mahalik, a plumber from Kharipal village in Pattamundai block, told over the phone from Doha.

Even electricians from the district are working in most of the newly-built stadiums and other buildings constructed for the World Cup.

Some of them have been earning around Rs 70,000 per month, reports said.

“Many plumbers trained from the state government’s State Institute of Plumbing and Technology (SIPT) established at Pattamundai in 2010 are also doing good independently while most are associated with some companies,” MLA of Rajnagar Dhruba Sahoo was quoted as saying.