Cooch Behar, Feb. 11: The ancient rubs shoulders with the state-of-the-art in this heritage town.

Overlooking the Cooch Behar palace, the district’s first indoor stadium, with modern equipment and a swimming pool, is all set to open in April.

With volleyball and badminton courts and facilities for gymnastics and table tennis, the stadium will be first of its kind in the north Bengal district.

Official sources said the stadium would also sport a multi-gymnasium, and a 400-m running track.

With labourers working overtime to put the facilities in place, all of Cooch Behar is looking forward to its “grand” opening.

Named Rajbari Indoor Stadium and Sporting Complex, it is being built at a cost of Rs 1.80 crore.

With the district headquarters not having any indoor training facilities, where sportspersons could practise “ come rain or shine”, residents have long been demanding the stadium.

Local youths interested in sports often grumbled that they had no place to practise in the monsoon.

The only playground in the entire district headquarters is the Rajbari Sporting Complex, where different clubs jostle for space.

“The sportspersons were long looking forward to this indoor stadium. After repeated pleas and endless letters to state authorities, the government finally relented when MP Amar Roy Pradhan laid the foundation stone in 1998 and launched the construction,” said Ashish Sarkar, district sports association head.

Sarkar said Pradhan, MP Debabrata Biswas and Tarini Roy and the Uttar Banga Unnayan Parshad had raised funds for setting up the stadium.

“We have a treasure-trove of sporting talent in the district. Sadly, without proper training facilities in town, sportspersons have failed to make their presence felt in the national circuit. Practice, the key to success in any sport, was disturbed by the vagaries of weather all along,” he added.

The level of enthusiasm shown by the children is great, said Biren Kundu, chairman of the Cooch Behar municipality.

“With a stadium that can match the best in the country, we are hopeful that we might be able to organise national-level meets in town. This will not only give sportsmen a chance to meet and interact with professionals but also inspire them to raise their level of performance,” he added.

“The stadium can be called a complex suited for all seasons. Equipped with modern facilities, we are chalking out plans to ensure it is used well,” Sarkar said.

“We are also looking forward to the sportspersons from the district bringing home laurels in national events. That will be reward enough for all the trouble we had to go through to set up the indoor sporting complex,” the district sports association head added.