Tennis stadium handed to Games panel, work at other venues crawls

R K Khanna stadium, the venue for the tennis events, has been handed over to the Organising Committee of Commonwealth Games on Monday. The Organising Committee can heave a breath of relief as at least one stadium has been handed over to them for putting the overlays in place before the August 1 deadline.

At present, a BSES line is being laid close to the stadium connecting it to two grids to ensure power back-up.

This is the first time that tennis has been made part of Commonwealth Games. The central court of the stadium has a seating capacity of 5,000 besides six practice courts. It also has many environment friendly features, including solar lighting, Intelligent Building Management System, rainwater harvesting and dual flushing systems, among others.

Work on the other nine competition venues, however, is far from over. For instance, even though Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will inaugurated by the Sports minister on Tuesday, horticulture and other landscaping work are still going on at the venue. Inside the stadium, “finishing touches” are being given.

The status of work at SP Mukherjee Stadium is probably the worst, where red tents hide the ongoing work behind it. The street-scaping work is lagging behind and so is the horticulture and landscaping work.

All the stadiums have to be handed over to the Commonwealth Organising Committee by August 1 so that all the necessary overlays like — timing and scoring machines, cabling, setting up tents, etc, can be fitted in the stadiums.

What’s the future of stadiums?’
What will happen to the stadiums once the Games is over? The question left even Union Urban Development minister Jaipal Reddy wondering on Monday. “I do not know what we will be doing with the stadiums post the Games. I think all the agencies involved need to sit together to solve this problem,” he said during the handing over ceremony of RK Khanna Tennis Stadium. Incidentally, Reddy heads the Group of Ministers on Commonwealth Games. Reddy was later overheard discussing the issue with All India Tennis Academy officials. “If the stadium is not put in regular use, it cannot be maintained I believe,” he said. Reddy also mentioned the last-minute rush to complete the work. “We have a habit of doing everything nicely but at the last minute,” he said.