Tarun Gogoi at the inauguration of the stadium on Sunday. Picture by Satananda Bhattacharjee

Hailakandi, Oct. 30: Chief minister Tarun Gogoi inaugurated a 12,000-square ft stadium, the state’s largest rural indoor arena, at Katlicherra on Friday.

A sum of Rs 54 lakh has been spent on the construction of the stadium. Of this, Rs 25 lakh has been sanctioned from the MP’s local area development fund while the remaining Rs 29 lakh was sanctioned under the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana.

The stadium can be used for holding badminton, volleyball, table tennis, basketball and other rural indoor sports. It will also have a cricket pitch, a record room and a library for sportsmen and sports lovers.

A local sportsman said the stadium would be a platform for sports talents not only from Hailakandi but from the Barak Valley. He added that the stadium was a milestone in the development of rural sports in the valley.

“The stadium will give sportsmen of Barak Valley a platform and enable them to gain a foothold in the national arena,” the sportsman said.

The former president of the Hailakandi zila parishad and present MLA from Algapur constituency, Rahul Roy, took the initiative to construct the stadium. Roy said when he first took charge as the chairman of the zila parishad, he took the initiative to construct a rural indoor stadium at Katlicherra.