Fennel, Chefs de Mission monitor Commonwealth Games preparations

Commonwealth Games Federation President Michael Fennel on Wednesday visited the Games Village along with the Chefs de Mission of Commonwealth Games to monitor the preparations for the forthcoming event.

The Chefs de Mission of 71 participating nations, are in New Delhi to attend a seminar from March 8-12 about the security
arrangements and other preparations for the Games.

Commonwealth Games CEO Mike Hooper and Fennel led the delegation to review the current progress.

The Delhi Development Authority, which is a delivery partner of the Commonwealth Games, has taken the charge of developing the state-of-the-art Games Village along the river Yamuna.

As per the report of the Commonwealth Games website, the village is being created at a cost of dollar 230.7 million, which includes the Residential Zone and is spread over an area of 63.5 hectares.

The village is also equipped with training areas for athletics (400 m eight-lane synthetic track and separate area for Throwing Events), swimming (50x25m, kids and leisure pool), weightlifting, wrestling and a fitness center.

The village has 14 blocks, 34 towers and 1,168 air-conditioned flats to comfortably accommodate 8,000 athletes and team officials.

There will be a number of apartments, ranging from two to five bedroom units, each with ensuite facilities. There will be only two occupants per room, which makes it the highest ratio of facilities provided for any Games, as per officials of Organising Committee Commonwealth Games 2010.

India had earlier come under severe criticism after construction of several venues and facilities for the Games, including the athletes'' village, fell behind schedule, that forced the postponement or shifting of many international meets planned as test events.