Patna: A storm sweeping across Bihar on Wednesday evening brought down an indoor stadium being constructed at Dumraon in Buxar district.

Nature's timely intervention revealed the extent of the rot that has permeated sports infrastructure and facilities in the state. Had the incident occurred after inauguration of the indoor stadium, being built at D.K. College in Dumraon, it could have led to a loss of lives.

Buxar district magistrate Arvind Kumar Verma did not have information about the collapse, but he promised express inquiry.

"We have also received directions from the art, culture and youth department to probe into the condition of stadiums. Accordingly, we have started doing so. Altogether nine stadiums were sanctioned for Buxar. None of them are complete yet. Our officials will assess them and send a report to the department," Verma said.

A stadium built in the name of Dalit icon Jagjivan Ram at Mohania in Kaimur is in sorry state: it gets waterlogged whenever it rains.

Another glaring example of the stadium stench is Jan Nayak Karpoori Thakur-Baba Nagarjun Stadium in Benipur sub-division in Darbhanga. It was inaugurated in December 2004 after being constructed at a cost of Rs 79 lakh, but was ignored by the administration thereafter.

Local residents now believe the stadium to be haunted. It has started crumbling and will soon join the list of stadiums across the state that have "vanished".

Muzaffarpur has six stadiums - at Kanti, Minapur, Saraiya, Gaighat, Bochahan and Sakra blocks. All are defunct because they were neither finished properly nor had the necessary facilities to host sporting activities. They have started disintegrating.

The stadiums at Raxaul and Turkoliya in East Champaran, built in 2010, are bereft of basic facilities: they have just one room equipped with a toilet. They were never electrified.

Art, culture and youth department minister Krishna Kumar Rishi told The Telegraph that all DMs have been directed to inspect stadiums under their jurisdiction and submit a report within a week.

"Once the reports arrive, we will check whether the money allotted for them was properly utilised and if they are incomplete, the reasons for it," the minister said.

"I accept that the condition of stadiums is bad. But we can't term it a scam because they have crumbled down or have been engulfed by wild foliage owing to lack of maintenance," Rishi added.