Get, set...365 days to go for CWG

With just 365 days left for the opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games 2010 to be held in the national Capital, the government and organisers of event are working to complete the infrastructure with the do-or-die deadline of March next year.

With more than Rs 12,000 crore having been spent, these are one of the most expensive Commonwealth Games. The 12-day event will include 17 sports at 23 competition venues. The government claims to provide over 40,000 rooms across all categories to accommodate the guests and officials.

But the slow pace of preparations and unmet deadlines have sparked fears over the success of the games. Many of the sports complexes are still far from completion. Around 14 of the 19 important venues are at risk of not being finished on time.

The chairman of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Michael Fenell, said last week that he was extremely worried at the lack of progress at different venues and even urged the Prime Minister’s intervention to speed up things.

Nothing can be worse than the fact that two projects in Yamuna sports complex, where archery and table tennis competitions are to be held, have failed to get the nod of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC). It claims that there is inconsistency in the set of drawings submitted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) which has taken up the project.

In a recent announcement, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) had said all the infrastructure projects would be completed by December this year. Only the rugby space in Delhi University and the cycling velodrome at IG Stadium had a March 2010 deadline.

The OC chairperson, Suresh Kalmadi, has denied any delays in infrastructure deadlines and said most projects would be ready by December 2009, adding that, if some of them got delayed, they would definitely be ready by March 2010. “This is a challenge. There will be problems, but we will face the problems,” he said.

However, the facelift of Talkatora Stadium, where all boxing events will take place, was scheduled to be completed by this month. But, the work seems to be nowhere near completion.

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is the main venue for the Games where the opening and closing ceremonies will take place. But with just three months to go for before its scheduled completion in December, only 48 per cent of the venue is ready. This is according to the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report.

Also, the new shooting range coming up for the games is not even half ready. That is partly because the plans for the shooting range were revised several times and it delayed the commencement of the work. The construction started in October last year.

More than half of the 20 critical bridges, overpasses and thousands of promised hotel rooms might not meet the deadline.

The state government also recently shelved the plans to clean up capital’s slums and instead has decided to plant thousands of bamboo trees to shield the worst neighbourhoods from view.

It is the first time an international sporting event of this magnitude is being held in India. The last major multi-sport event held was the Asian Games in Delhi in 1982.

Incomplete projects

STADIUMS

JN Sports Complex- more than 50 % left
IG Sports Complex- more than 50 %left
Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range and CRPF campus, Kadarpur- more than 30 % left
Yamuna Sports Complex- more than 30% left
Siri Fort Sports Complex- more than 30% left

PARKINGS

Kushak nallah – more than 70% left
Hauz-Khas – work yet to start
Munirka- work yet to start
Model Town-II – work yet to start
Gandhi Nagar- work yet to start

FLYOVERS

Nellah Hauz Khas – more than 50% left
Barapullah nallah- more than 50% left
Azadpur- partially ready
RR Kohli Marg - partially ready
ITO chungi – partially ready

Be part of the Commonwealth Games team

Over 8,000 athletes, hundreds of delegates and several heads of state will converge in Delhi next year for the 19th Commonwealth Games . And, needless to say, the organizers are leaving no stone unturned -- from foolproof security to state-of-the-art stadia and infrastructure -- to make the event a success.

Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi is confident about India staging the Games successfully.

"We have hired many international experts to ensure there are no slip-ups," he told newspersons a couple of weeks back.

What he did not say was the lack of a workforce from home to man Games services, venue operations, technology and more.

A couple of months back the Games Organising Committee announced on its web site (http://www.cwgdelhi2010.org/) that it hiring staff for various positions. But with exactly 356 days for the Games to open it is still to enlist the required people.

'You can be a part of this dream team are you Game? It's a race against time. We are looking for an exceptional team to help us cross the finish line and deliver the best Commonwealth Games ever,' said the appeal.