A rate card for BHU's playing fields: the astroturf, the pool and the indoor stadium now come with published booking prices

Some of the best sporting surfaces in Varanasi sit inside the BHU campus, and the university has now put a clear price on using them. In reply to an RTI application filed by Santosh Tripathi, the University Sports Board has laid out booking rates for 11 sports — useful information for any school team, club or academy in the city that has been wondering what it costs to play a match on a proper ground. For a competition, the range runs from about ₹1,000 to ₹7,000. Basketball, football, volleyball and handball sit at the lower end. The hockey astroturf and the swimming pool are at the top: a hockey match is priced around ₹2,000 with a full day at ₹7,000, and a day at the pool is also ₹7,000. The Vibhuti Narayan indoor stadium is ₹6,000 for a competition, the cricket ground ₹4,000 a day, a tennis court ₹2,000 a match, the squash court ₹7,000, the JK badminton hall ₹3,000, the boxing ring ₹2,000, and athletics between ₹3,000 and ₹5,000. Purely commercial bookings cost more — roughly ₹5,000 to ₹50,000, with the pool at the top of that scale. The sports board has said a committee takes the final call on every commercial booking after looking at what the organiser stands to earn, and that the facilities will not be handed over for any non-sporting use. For the city's players, that last line matters as much as the numbers.

Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: Amar Ujala — Varanasi