Agartala, Nov 04: After Chandrapur in Gomati district, Tripura’s second synthetic football turf has been inaugurated at Umakanta Mini Stadium in Agartala on Friday.

Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha has inaugurated the new sports facility built at an expenditure of Rs. 5 crore. He also laid foundation stone of flood light; the project is expected to be completed in the next two months.

He said, the synthetic football turf has been constructed according to the guidelines of international football organization- FIFA.

The Chief Minister said, there is no shortage of talents in the field of sports. Modern infrastructure is important for development of sports sector. He said, the state government is giving priority to develop the sports infrastructures across the state.

He also said, any kind of sports plays a significant role in development of brain as well as building healthy society by keeping the young generation away from addictions.
 
Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma said, it is a historic day for sports in the state. Despite of different financial challenges, the present government did not compromise with the development of sports infrastructure. 

Sports play an important role in building a spirit of competition and cooperation among the youth as well as in building human character. That is why, the government has started to implement ‘Khelo Tripura, Sustho Tripura’ for sports infrastructure development in the state. There is scope for taking up any kind of sport as a profession as there is income and respect in every kind of sport, he said. 

Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports- Sushanta Chowdhury said, the initiative to construct such Synthetic Football Turfs in Jirania, Mohanpur, Belonia and Agartala was taken under the central government’s special assistance scheme. But the fund allocation under the scheme stopped due to various reasons. These synthetic football turfs have been constructed with the state budget of about Rs. 20 crore. The synthetic turf at Umakanta ground is one of these. 

The Sports minister thanked the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister for providing financial assistance for modernizing these grounds. 

Mayor of Agartala municipal Corporation Dipak Majumder also attended the inaugural programme. The welcome speech was delivered by Secretary of Youth Affairs & Sports department Dr. P. K. Chakravarty. 

Director of the department Subikash Debbarma, Padmashri Dipa Karmakar, secretary of Tripura Sports Council Amit Rakshit and president of Tripura Football Association Pranab Sarkar present in the programme.