Sheila Dikshit now sets Sept 15 as deadline for CWG venues

The Commonwealth Games deadline has just been pushed back, yet again. On Friday, Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit announced that, god willing, the Games venues would be ready to be handed over only by September 10-15. This means the venues will be ready just about a fortnight before the Games.
After the venues are handed over, a lot of work would have to be done. Apart from fine-tuning facilities, dry runs would have to be carried out to check that all systems are alright. "This is as fine as it gets," said an official with the Organizing Committee. "Another slip-up and we'll be done for."

Dikshit said heavy rain had prevented work from being completed in time, which is August 31. Actually, that was the fourth deadline to have been set after the first date of March 31 was missed. For most of this period, when civic agencies were supposed to be hard at work, there was no rain.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function, Dikshit said: "Aisa lagta hai ke Indra devta humse kuch naraaz hain. (It seems the rain god is unhappy with us.) I will appeal to him to him bring some sunshine so that work can be completed." If rain stopped, she said, work would be wound up by September 10-15.

Apart from giving the finishing touches to the stadiums, mounds of debris will have to be cleared from the venue sites. This is the third deadline set by the CM for removing the debris. Last month, she had set August 10 as the deadline, which was extended to August 31, and now to September 10-15. Incidentally, India was awarded the Commonwealth Games seven years ago, in 2003.

The new deadline has been set after various agencies involved in construction activities conveyed to Dikshit that they will not be able to complete their work within the next four days. On the pile of debris, she said that a lot of it has been already removed and agencies have been asked to urgently remove the rest. She added that if they are not able to abide then the government would step in to ensure that it is removed. Dikshit said a total of 145,000 metric tonnes of debris has already been removed.

While raising anxiety levels seriously by extending the work completion deadline, Dikshit assured that all the work related to the Games would certainly be completed before October 3. Of course, if that doesn't happen the Games will turn out to be a mega embarrassment for India.

The city government had undertaken projects worth over Rs 15,000 crore to improve infrastructure in the capital for the Games. The pressure on it to complete construction has been growing with each passing day with most of the projects already missing deadlines.

On Thursday, Jaipal Reddy, head of the group of ministers overseeing the work related to the Games, said what has been whispered for the past fortnight - there will be further delay in the handover of the venues to the OC.

It's not the first time that deadlines have been missed by the agencies involved in the preparations. Without exception, every agency entrusted with construction and refurbishment of existing venues has missed each deadline set - from the first one set in November/December 2009 to succeeding ones in March 2010, June 31, July 31 and now, August 31. The deadline now has been extended from August 31 to the first week of September.

The reasons have been varied. In some cases, like the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, the reason was the addition of a tunnel for the performers, an order that was placed in October 2009, further pushing the deadline for the main stadium, which will be hosting the opening and closing ceremonies besides athletic, weightlifting and lawn bowl events. In Siri Fort sports complex, the reason was a court case for the cutting down of trees and the proximity to the heritage Siri Fort wall. Later, it was the delay in laying FOP (field of play), which construction agencies said hadn't been made available by the OC yet, as the committee hadn't floated tenders to engage the companies.

This time, Reddy says it's the rains and the delay in delivery of containers for the overlay work. On Thursday, Reddy said that it would be a "minor" delay of a "couple of days". "The schedule is not met strictly. It is being delayed by a couple of days because of rain and because of delay in delivery of containers," said the UD minister.

Incidentally, the August 31 deadline was set as the last minute work - specifically the laying of cables for security set-up as well as for the communications and technology functions by ECIL and MTNL respectively, hadn't been completed yet.

At that time, the government had said that the cabling would be completed in a month's time - that is, by August 31. On Thursday though, Reddy said the cabling had still not finished.

"The main focus was the work to be done by MTNL, TCIL and Prasar Bharati. All of them have given comprehensive reports," said Reddy, adding, "At the end of the day, the communication network is the most important thing. It was reviewed and we are satisfied that we are on schedule."

The statement is ironic considering the GoM has been expressing satisfaction with the progress of work for some time now. Sources say that work at several stadia like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Yamuna sports complex, are still to be finished.

"It will take at least another fortnight for the work to be completed, if the rains stop," added the official. However, with the weather going contrary, it's not a state of affairs that seems to be available any time soon. Officials say they expect the venues to be ready only by September 15, less than a fortnight before the Delhi Games 2010 take off from October 3.