Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati

Guwahati, Oct. 26: The Assam Football Association’s (AFA) dream of making Guwahati an international football venue has got a shot in the arm with Dispur mulling the idea of creating an infrastructure of that stature.

The Sports Authority of Assam (SAA) has prepared a proposal to cover the galleries of Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in the Sarusajai sports complex here to give it the shape of an international football stadium. The proposal comes in the light of an announcement by the state government to create a corpus fund with an initial allocation of Rs 7 crore from the state exchequer.

SAA director general Pradip Hazarika told the Telegraph that a detailed project report has been submitted to Dispur and they were awaiting a “favourable response”.

“The uncovered galleries are damaged because of exposure to rain and heat. In the first phase we propose to cover them up like those on the western side of the stadium.

Then we will go for chairs in all the stands,” Hazarika said, adding, “It will all depend upon the availability of funds”.

The western galleries of the 30,000-capacity stadium, built for the 33rd National Games held here in 2007, are covered and chaired. For an international football stadium, Fifa stipulated that there should be 100 per cent chaired accommodation.

After hosting the Federation Cup tournament in 2009 and the Santosh Trophy Tournament this year here successfully, the AFA has been vying for an international match involving India and any other Asian nation.

The AFA also hosted the oldest football club in the world — Sheffield FC — for a friendly against the Assam Santosh Trophy probables last year at the Indira Gandhi Stadium.

“We will be awarded an international match anytime we bid for it. But we will find ourselves in a fix once because we don’t have the infrastructure the Fifa and the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) have stipulated,” said AFA secretary Ankur Dutta.

However, a section of sports administrators feel though the SAA initiative was a “welcome” one, the funds which it was eyeing for the construction was not meant for it.

“The corpus fund is being created for the maintenance of infrastructure. As far as the government proposal is concerned, SAA will be able to utilise the dividend by investing the Rs 7 crore for the maintenance and the capital will have to be intact,” said an official.

“Instead, SAA could have moved corporate sector directly or through the state government for the further improvement of the infrastructure, which could have been a praiseworthy initiative,” the official added.