Testing of equipment at CWG venues to begin on 1st Sept: GoM

All agencies involved in the preparation of the Commonwealth Games were on Friday directed by a Group of Ministers to hand over the venues to the Organising Committee by 31st August.

The testing of various equipment and networks to be installed will commence from 1st September, the GoM decided.

The GoM on Commonwealth Games which met here also considered the status of the venues and took note of the problems being faced.

"This will all fall into place by 31st August. The venues are already handed over. The network and technology that are to be installed will be installed by 31st August. The testing will commence on 1st September," Secretary Sports and Youth Affairs Sindhu Shree Khullar told reporters after the meeting.

The venue of the archery finals will be held at the Yamuna Sports Complex instead of India Gate, it was decided by the Group headed by Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy.

It is learnt that security concerns at India Gate forced the authorities to shift the venue to the Yamuna Complex.

Khullar said the GoM took "all details" from the officers and tried to find out the prevailing deficiencies.

Besides, the GoM also discussed the housekeeping issues.

"Now other than that there were number of housekeeping issues which were discussed and the GoM was briefed on several items of pending work. The GoM is now committed to meet the deadlines," she said.

The meeting held "point by point" discussion on the Games Village and also the residential towers and their schedule of handovers to OC.

The readiness of the kitchen at the Village was also discussed in the meeting.

The meeting was attended by the Chief Minister of Delhi Shiela Dikshit, Lt-Governor Tejinder Khanna, Sports Minister M S Gill, Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi, Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, officials from DDA, PWD, CPWD and Delhi government among others.

The GoM was also took note about the movement of containers.

"Yesterday 120 containers were cleared. All other formalities including customs clearance are in place now. None of the containers are struck in ports. There are still some yet to arrive...customs clearance is now totally streamlined," she said.

Reddy said they focussed on technology networks today.

"Prasar Bharati, MTNL, TCIL have to get their act together before equipment could be inserted (at the venues).

Asked whether venues will be completed before the Games, he said "everything will be in time."