All venues to be ready in a week's time: Commonwealth Games OC

The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CWG OC) vice- chairman Randhir Singh on Monday said all the venues are in top shape and will be ready in a week's time. Randhir Singh and CWG OC secretary-general Lalit Bhanot, addressing a joint press conference in New Delhi, said they visited all the venues, except the Kadarpur Shooting Range, in the last couple of days and were satisfied with the preparations.

"I must say that I was very worried until I visited the venues. After seeing the world class facilities, I can say that every venue is in a top shape and we should be proud of it," Randhir said.

"We personally visited the venues for the last five days. We have been to each and every venue except the shooting range in Kadarpur and from there also we got a positive report. We checked every facility thoroughly. We checked each and every room. The field of play is already in a proper shape.

"We checked the rest of the building, the rubble, the grassing of the surface, the gardening etc. We should be proud of the job done by the stakeholders, the Delhi government, DDA and other agencies."

"There are a few things like painting and polishing, a tile broken here and there, such small things are being fixed. Everything will be ready in a week's time. All these minor things will be cleaned up by then and we can even hold an event after that.

"It is very, very encouraging what we saw."

Randhir then went on to give details of the work remaining in various venues.

"The teams from OC have already moved into the stadiums. The Karni Singh shooting range is in an excellent condition. There was a little problem in the trap arena, which is being looked into. The rifle ranges in 50 metre, 25m and 10m are in top condition."

"The Games village will be opened on Sep 16. At least 10 members from every country will come for the athletes registration and they will stay there," he said.

Bhanot said they have also spoken to the venues owners about the mandatory clearance certificates that they need to hand over to CGOC.

"The venue owners are in the process of getting the safety and other clearances from various authorities."