KOLKATA: The Barasat Stadium, which hosted several I-League matches this season, should be upgraded into a sports complex-cum-stadium, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee directed the sports department on Tuesday.
“The Barasat Stadium must be developed. It must be done in a great way as it is close to Kolkata also. It should be developed into a sports complex-cum-stadium,” Banerjee said during an administrative review meeting held at the Rabindra Bhavan here. She added that all costs incurred during the refurbishment would be borne by the sports department, a newswire IANS report said.
“The West Bengal government hosted the U-17 World Cup matches in a great manner. Now their decision to refurbish the Barasat Stadium augurs well for us and we hope this step will further boost football in West Bengal and India,” I-League CEO Sunando Dhar told IANS over phone from New Delhi.
The CM’s decision came after actor-cum-politician Chiranjit Chakraborty, a local MLA, drew her attention to the dilapidated state of the stadium. Banerjee asked the Principal Secretary of Youth Services & Sports Department Sayeed Ahmed Baba to draw up a plan for the stadium’s development.
The stadium, also known as Vidyasagar Krirangan, has a capacity to accommodate around 22,000 spectators and has an artificial turf, the report added.
