State to develop residential sports academy

The state government has decided to develop a residential sports academy to let talented students and youth from different districts get a better platform to prepare themselves for international level competitions.

The Mamata Banerjee government has taken several steps to ensure that students and youth get all sorts of facilities to build their career. Now, the initiative has been taken to create infrastructure that will ensure residential facility for youth undertaking training for different types of sports activities. An infrastructure will be developed at Khardah in North 24 Parganas, where students can stay and carry out both studies and sports practice at a time. It is learnt that the work to set up the sports academy would start from March 6 and it would take around a year to complete setting up of the infrastructure.

Giving stress on developing a better infrastructure for sports, the state government is giving financial assistance to local clubs which utilise the money to provide sports training to local children and youth. At the same time, steps were also taken to develop infrastructure in both district and state level. At present, the state government organises both cultural and sports competition in districts. The step was taken to identify talented students and youth and to provide them with a platform so that they can showcase their talents. Special emphasis was given for the youth of Jangalmahal.

During the process of identifying talents, the state government felt the necessity of a residential sports academy and decided to set up one at Khardah. The state has also taken initiatives to set up an international standard athletic centre in the city.