Beyond the Border: Eastern Railway’s Sports Academies are Developing the Next Generation of Sports Stars

Eastern Railway, known for its passenger transport, has now emerged as a major freight transport company in Eastern India. Despite playing a major role in the transport sector, Eastern Railway has made every effort to promote sports and develop sports infrastructure, so that future talented players can be developed and a sports-oriented culture can be created.

Three years ago, the world was recovering from one of the biggest shocks of the century—the impact of the COVID pandemic. People were then re-evaluating their lifestyle—emphasizing the importance of physical exercise with an emphasis on natural immunity. At that crucial time, Eastern Railway took a novel initiative to inculcate sports habits among the youth. This effort began in April 2022 with the inauguration of a cricket academy at Behala Sports Complex.

This initiative is in line with the long-standing passion for sports of Indian Railways and is a practical implementation of the "Khelo India, Khelo" programme announced by the Hon'ble Prime Minister. The aim is not to make a profit, but to charge much lower fees than the market rate and additional concessions are made for the children of railway employees. Under the supervision of skilled trainers, this academy started training talented youngsters. The response from the local people was so overwhelming that the seats of the academy were filled up in a short time.

This effort, which started with the motto of "excellence", quickly started bearing fruits—

• Wazed Hossain represented the Bengal U-19 team.

• Subhankar Dey played for the Kolkata Tigers team in the Bengal Premier League.

• The academy's U-15 team secured the top position in the CAB tournament.

Encouraged by this success, Eastern Railway quickly expanded its sports activities. With top-notch infrastructure and immense sporting potential, the Basketball and Swimming Academies were launched. Their achievements are as follows—

• Sania Banerjee retained the top position in the Jharkhand State Table Tennis Championship for three consecutive years.

• Soham Basu Roy secured the third position in the Eastern C.B.S.E. Table Tennis Competition.

• In Basketball, Samayetri Saha, Oishee Patra and Ayan De represented Bengal at the national level.

The Swimming and Diving Academy at Gholsapur Sports Complex has world-class facilities. Divers Shubham Hor and Avro Sardar have already won silver medals in national competitions.

The most recent addition is the ‘Lakshya’ Chess Academy, launched in April 2025, where training is being conducted by experienced instructors including Grandmasters. It has been recognized as a centre of excellence since inception.

What makes Eastern Railway's sports academies unique is their combination of meticulous supervision, personal attention, game-based skill development, rigorous practice, regular competitive participation and unparalleled infrastructure.

The greatest achievement of these academies is inculcating healthy habits and positive attitudes among the youth. While numbers were never the objective of Eastern Railway, the presence of over 700 trainees is a shining testament to the popularity, trust and confidence these academies have earned within a short span of time among the local community.