Early birds will find trailing venues

Yet another embarrassment seems headed the organising committee’s (OC) way. As per international norms, athletes are expected to start coming to Delhi from the middle of September, and they will presumably expect that the training venues are ready when they arrive.

For the majority of athletes, the training venues will be the most important and oft-visited site after the Commonwealth Games Village. The fact, however, seems to have escaped the authorities. Construction agencies admit that many of the training venues will be ready only by August-end or beginning of September — if these new deadlines are kept — barely days before athletes start arriving.

According to officials in the sports ministry, the pace of work at many training venues is considerably lagging behind. For instance, the complex coming up in the Commonwealth Games Village — dubbed as the practice venue — has been exclusively built on international FOP (field of play) guidelines. Here, athletes will be able to practice for the swimming, athletics, weightlifting and wrestling events. However, the ground reality is rather grim, with the construction still under way.

While the swimming complex is still to be finished, work in the indoor hall, the venue for weightlifting and wrestling, is also limping along. Insiders admit that the earliest by which the venue is expected to be ready is end-August. A senior DDA official said, ‘‘We had changed the contractor mid-way through the construction, in November last year, due to continued delays. That led to further delays.’’ Incidentally, both weightlifting and wrestling events are medal events for India.

The situation is no less grim in Shivaji Stadium, where the FOP hasn’t even been laid yet. It’s a practice venue for hockey, and one of the few venues that was the Delhi government’s responsibility. However, the parking bay here is still a distant dream, with the NDMC having barely started on the facility block that is to come up in the stadium. Sources claim if the venue is finished by August-end, it will be a miracle.

Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has been equally lagging behind in work at its other training venues in Siri Fort and the Yamuna Sports Complex. While the former has facilities for tennis, swimming, badminton and squash, the latter will be the training venue for swimming, gymnastics and hockey. At Siri Fort, both the tennis and swimming training venues are behind schedule while at Yamuna Sports Complex the gymnastics and swimming training facilities are proving to be the obstacle.

Across town, the Saket Sports Complex, training venue for badminton, is in no better shape. Ironically, the training space in Delhi University is also lagging behind — a surprise considering DU’s competition venue was one of the few that was ready on schedule for handover to the OC. Here, the Polo Ground (athletics) as well as the wrestling venue in SRCC are the ones lagging behind.

Officials claimed the reason why training venues have been behind schedule was because the handover of these was more relaxed than the competition venues. OC officials are now counting on not too many sportspersons arriving early.