The foundation for one of the high-mast lights at Nurul Amin Stadium in Nagaon on Sunday. Picture by UB Photos

Nagaon, July 4: Nowgong Sports Association (NSA) is preparing to host some of the significant matches of its flagship event, the 62nd Independence Day Cup Football Tournament, with newly installed floodlights at Nurul Amin Stadium here.

NSA general secretary Pradip Hazarika told The Telegraph that the initiative would be an experiment, which will however, depend on timely completion of the floodlights installation project.

The Independence Day Cup tournament will be held from the second week of September and the NSA is planning to invite over 15 popular teams.

The Public Works Department (electrical), which is executing the project, said the Rs 2-crore project, proposed to be completed within August, would take a couple of weeks more, taking the deadline to the first fortnight of September.

“Delay in start of work by the contractors followed by recent Assembly elections due to which work had to be suspended for some days are the main reasons for the delay,” an official said.

The then PWD minister Ajanta Neog announced the installation of floodlights just before the 2nd State Games in January this year.

Bajaj India Ltd was entrusted with the work of drawing up the project. The department later engaged four contractors to execute it.

“Of the four towers, foundation work of three have been completed. Construction of the last tower’s foundation started on Friday. The erection of the towers take hardly a couple of weeks’ time. Work like construction of control rooms and installation of a noise-free generator will continue. We hope we can finish the works before the ID Cup,” said a PWD official.

“This has been a long cherished dream of the people of this central Assam district. With the floodlights in the stadium, Nagaon will go a step ahead in the field of sports,” said forest minister Rockybul Hussain, also the president of the NSA.

Hazarika said all possible steps were being taken to make the forthcoming ID Cup a different type of all-India level tournament.

“The guidelines of the All India Football Federation compel some good teams to opt for more significant tournament in other parts of the nation. But our attempts might attract them to join here this time,” he added.