A small cricket ground, maintained by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for several years, has come in the way of a proposed pathway to link the Open Hand monument and other edifices in the complex. The administration, which has already started construction of the pathway near the recently built tourism information centre, is eager to restore the original design in order to get the world heritage status for the Capitol Complex in 2016.

An expert team from UNESCO will visit the city some time before September for an evaluation of the site. In its dossier to the UNESCO, the administration has claimed that no major structural or planning changes that can have a discernible impact on the authenticity of the complex — which comprises the high court, the Assembly, the secretariat, the Open Hand monument and other components — have been allowed.

However, the cricket ground is a major deviation from the original design, according to sources.

Sources said that after the administration started work on the pathway, officials of the architecture wing were summoned to the high court and conveyed its displeasure on the administration’s plan to dismantle the cricket ground, which is used by judges and advocates for their occasional cricket tournaments. The ground is well- maintained and even has flood lights.

This has put the administration officials in a fix. The drawings prepared by the architecture wing, reportedly on the basis of Corbusier’s plans, show the pathway passing through the middle of the cricket ground.