Kolkata's sports authorities are working to get an athletics academy up and going, and planning to ask 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh to take over as its chief.
The academy, a first-time effort in the state, is being built by South Calcutta Sports Development Council, encouraged as it is by a string of good national and international performances by Indian athletes.
According to SCSDC official Tapas Basu, the academy's curriculum will be framed in a manner to benefit not only athletes but also players of other sports like football and cricket.
The academy is to come up at the city-based Rabindra Sarobar stadium by the year-end.
Basu says the selection of trainees for the academy would be done through a sports meet planned for November.
"The participants would be divided into two age-groups--10-14 years and 15-16 years.
"The junior group would participate in 100m sprint, jumps and throws, while the older wards would do middle-distance runs, hurdles, jumps and throws," he said.
After the preliminary selection, the trainees would go through three or four rounds of intensive screening before they are enrolled in the academy.
Basu said they would like to emulate and improve upon the module of management followed by the Tata Football Academy (TFA).
"Many academies begin, but they die silent deaths soon enough. TFA is the only one that is doing yeoman service to Indian football," Basu said.
The academy organizers have contacted Milkha Singh for the job of chief technical advisor, and the 'Flying Sikh' is understood to have consented.