The Trinamool-run board at the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) will inaugurate a table tennis coaching centre at the indoor stadium in May 2025 for aspiring paddlers.
“We will open a table tennis coaching centre at the indoor stadium. As of now, some renovation work is in progress. We hope the work will end and the necessary infrastructure will be ready soon, as we intend to start the facility by June this year,” Gautam Deb, the mayor, said after a meeting with representatives of the SMC's sports committee on Friday.
The indoor stadium, in Deshbandhupara, was built in the nineties. Run by the civic body, several important indoor game events were hosted there.
Sources said that back in 2021, the civic body planned to make the indoor stadium ready for the coaching centre. The plan, however, was stalled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The stadium, which can accommodate 5,000 spectators, was used to house Covid patients.
The mayor said the synthetic mat of the sporting arena will be installed shortly.“There will be at least six tables where the players from different age groups will be provided with coaching. Prominent coaches and former paddlers like Amalendu Raha, Asitava Dutta and Kasturi Chakraborty will be there to coach the players,” he said.
Raha, a veteran coach from the city, said they will start with 70-odd players. Chakraborty, a former senior national champion, said their target group is children between the ages of four to 10-years-old.
