Kolkata: The West Bengal government is making elaborate arrangements to help school and college goers watch the upcoming FIFA U-17 World Cup matches scheduled at the Salt Lake Stadium from next month.
According to a senior official of the West Bengal education department, arrangements have been made to provide free tickets to approximately 5,000 school and college students, both boys and girls, to watch each of the 10 matches of the show piece tournament, including the final which is scheduled for October 28th.
"Free passes will be provided to students of different schools and colleges of the state to watch the U-17 World Cup matches scheduled at the Salt Lake Stadium from October 8. Each day, around 5,000 students will be given free passes to attend the match," the official told PTI.
However, it has been learnt that only students who play soccer or are involved in different sporting activities can avail these free passes.
Of the 5,000 passes to be allotted daily, 2,000 each would be given to students of schools and colleges, while 500 each would be given to students of Madrasas and polytechnic colleges.
A separate box and specific seating arrangements at the Salt Lake Stadium have already been earmarked for the students, he said.
"School authorities will be shortlisting the names of the students which will be forwarded to the education
department," the officer said adding, that the directives for the same had already been circulated to the schools.
The West Bengal Sports Council, which is supervising the process, would also be forwarding lists of students
it has prepared on its own. The lists will have names of students who have excelled in sports.
The state education department has already written to the transport department asking for around 70 AC and non-AC buses for transporting the students to and from the renovated Salt Lake stadium.
Arrangements have also been made to provide food and accommodation to the students coming to watch the matches, the official said. "There are many students who stay in the districts and it will be difficult for them to come and watch a match and go back home on the same day. So we are making arrangements to provide them with lodging and fooding which will also be absolutely free of cost," he added.
"With such a big sporting event happening in the city,we must help our students watch the to watch the high-class foreign footballers play the game. Watching the tournament from such close quarters will provide the students who dream of becoming professional footballers with a lot of inspiration," the official concluded.
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