Addressing a press conference at the A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies, principal secretary, HRD-cum-tournament chairman Anjani Kumar Singh said that this year 14 teams, including five women's team, would participate in the tournament. The matches would be played in two sessions -- morning and evening, he said, adding that the evening matches would be played under floodlights.

In men's section, the winning team would bag a prize money of Rs 15,000, the runners-up would get Rs 10,000. In the women's category, the prize amount would be Rs 11,000 for the winners and Rs 10,000 for the runners-up, said Singh. Besides this, best all-rounder, booster and attacker from both the categories would also be awarded, he said.

Secretary, information and public relations department (IPRD) and patron of the tournament Rajesh Bhushan said that the teams participating in male category this year comprise CSEC (Kolkata), Air Force (Delhi), Cold field (Korba), Bilaspur rail, SAI (Raibareli), Volleyball Association (Mumbai), BMP (Patna), BSNL (Patna), NF railway (Guwahati) and DLW (Varanasi). The five women teams include Eastern Railway, South Eastern Railway, West Bengal police and Bihar and Jharkhand teams, he said.

Secretary, art and culture and youth affairs, Vivek Singh said that a technical committee headed by noted volleyball player Safi Ahmed has been formed for the successful organization of the tournament.

Chief patron of the tournament Dr R N Singh said that this year women teams' matches would be played on the basis of Round Robin League. The two top teams would play the final slated on March 13, said Dr Singh, adding that the male teams have been divided into two pools and top two teams from both the pool would clash in the final.