An airport to park cars

For nearly half a century, not a single commercial flight has landed or taken off from the Safdarjung airport. Now, the airport is being reinvented as a giant parking lot.

Once home to Dakota and Cessna aircraft, the capital’s first airport will now accommodate cars and buses for the Commonwealth Games to be held in October.

The New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) is building a park-and-ride facility here and is beautifying the airstrip in consultation with the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which owns the airport.

People visiting the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, one of the Games venues, will be able to park their vehicles here and board a bus to the stadium.

Till just a few years ago, motorists driving on the Safdarjung flyover would slow down their cars to watch small aircraft and gliders land on the airstrip.

Now, all they can see is construction work going on at a war footing to build the huge parking lot before the games.

The parking lot will be spread over 1.65 lakh square metres and will accommodate 3,000 cars, 600 buses and a few hundred two wheelers.

“The parking will be open to visitors for the Commonwealth Games, who will park their vehicles here and take a bus to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and back,” said Ramesh Raina, NDMC’s Chief Engineer.

“We are cementing the whole surface and covering it with ‘Pavers’,” he said. “Once the Games are over, these pavers will be taken out and reused elsewhere,” he said.

NDMC will also build public conveniences, resting sheds, booths for security checks and other facilities here. After the Games, the whole parking area and other temporary utility structures will be razed and the NDMC will restore the airport back to its original state.

The Safdarjung airport, earlier called the Willingdon airport, was built more than 80 years ago and was in use till the 1960s.

The airstrip, however, was not big enough to accommodate Jet planes and the Palam airport became the city’s main airport.

The runway was being used by the Delhi Flying Club for small planes, but after 9/11, all such flights from the airport were banned due to security reasons. The airport has been lying idle since then and is only used for VIP helicopters.

3500 Games flats up for grabs by year-end

For a city severely short on housing units, there's good news by the year-end. Around 3,500 flats being built in Vasant Kunj and Jasola for the Commonwealth Games are close to completion and will be in the market later this year. This is in addition to the existing stock of 15,000 flats to be ready in 2010, officials said.

``The flats are going to be part of the stock that will be disposed of by the DDA, though the mode of disposal hasn't been decided yet,'' said DDA spokesperson Neemo Dhar. Officials said the flats, which fall under various categories including LIG, MIG and HIG, are expected to be ready by March-April this year. These flats, earmarked for the Commonwealth Games, will yield more than 5,000 rooms for accommodation of sports delegates and officials during the Games. Furnished by Indian Tourism
Development Corporation (ITDC), the flats come with modern fittings and facilities, including a common dining area and recreational space, in keeping with the needs of the visitors. DDA officials, however, said the agency hadn't decided if the flats would thereafter be sold with the renovated fittings.

According to DDA officials, more than 15,000 flats are going to be ready this year and could well be the biggest housing scheme to come from the DDA if the flats are all put in the market in toto. However, officials admitted that chances of that happening were small, as the 3,500 flats that are coming up in Vasant Kunj and Jasola would only be available after the Commonwealth Games in October this year.

``The flats may be sold as part of a separate scheme, as these would be available much later whereas the Authority is hoping to launch a housing scheme earlier than that,'' added a senior DDA official.

The agency also has plans to build 42,000 flats over the next four years. For this year though, it plans to complete 15,000 flats, with 5,000 to be commissioned and built by March. In fact, in this year's budget, the DDA has set aside Rs 1470 crore towards building residential units.

Commonwealth Games: London metropolitan police officials meet Delhi cops

London metropolitan police officials are understood to have met senior Delhi police officials in the capital today to discuss different measures and issues concerning the Commonwealth Games in October this year.

According to a senior police official, the delegation had a half-hour meeting with special commissioner of police (administration), Neeraj Kumar among other officials to discuss the mega-event's security.

"The meeting was related to Commonwealth Games. Both the parties have exchanged their concern and preparedness related
to the Games," the official said requesting anonymity.

India is hosting its first-ever Commonwealth Games between October 3-14 in the national capital.

Delhi spending Rs200 crore to resurface roads before Commonwealth

All major roads in the national capital would wear a new look ahead of the Commonwealth Games with the governmentspending Rs200 crore to resurface them using latest technology.

PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said a total of 4,24km of roads in the city are being rebuilt under the road beautification project which would be completed much before commencement of the sporting event in October.

He said the roads are being resurfaced using best international technology and some of them are being rebuilt by mixing waste plastic with bitumen to increase their longevity.

Elaborating his department's efforts to improve conditions of major roads in the city ahead of the mega event, Chauhan said special attention was being given to beautify roads in and around the venues of the Games.

Chauhan was speaking after inspecting progress of resurfacing of roads with recycling and micro surfacing technology in South Delhi.

He said about 42 kms of roads are being built in South Delhi using recycling method.

Roads being resurfaced using recycling method includes Mahrauli Mahipalpur road, Nelson Mandela Marg, Vedant Dixika Marg, Africa Avenue Marg and Guru Ravidas Marg.

Officials said roads being built using micro surfacing will be waterproof.

NDMC selects four schools for CWG opening ceremony

Three NDMC and one Navyug schools have been shortlisted by the civic agency for participation in the opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games 2010 and selected students from these institutions will now be given training.

"The students of three NDMC and one Navyug schools have been selected for the opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games," chairperson of NDMC Parimal Rai said on Thursday.

He was speaking at a function for distribution of awards to the students of NDMC and Navyug schools for sports and co-curricular activities.

Rai hoped that the students will present their best performance at the Games opening ceremony.

Officials said selected students from these schools will now be given training for their performance at the sporting extravaganza to be held in October this year.

Ten NDMC schools students have been awarded scholarships for the "best sports students" for the year 2009-10. About 1350 prizes were distributed among the students for showing excellence in sports events.

The students of various schools presented colourful cultural programmes consisting of Rajasthan dance, Punjabi bhangra, yoga demonstrations and aerobics on the occasion.

Vijender tired of bronze, eyes gold at CWG 2010

Frustrated by winning bronze at the international level off late, Olympian Vijender Singh today said he is now aiming to lay his hands on the ellusive gold at the Commonwealth Games, to be held here this October.

Vijender, who had to settle for a silver after losing the final to China's Zhang Jin Tingat at the Champions of Champions event last week, further stressed that he was frustrated by winning bronze in international tournaments and will now eye gold in upcoming events including the Commonwealth Boxing Championships, Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.

''I am really tired of winning bronze now. I want to give up the bronze medal even if I win it in the coming times. In the year 2010, I want only gold medals and for that I am preparing myself well,'' Vijender told UNI over telephone from Patiala.

Vijender, who has been gearing up for the selection trials for the Commonwealth Boxing Championships starting on March 12, also said as the event is happening in India, the pressure will be on him to excel.

''The big event is happening this time in India and I am 101 per cent sure that all eyes will be on me and I will have to perform at my best.

''The pressure will also be high on me. I am training well for the trials on Saturday and Sunday here,'' he said.

The Olympic bronze medallist, who jumped to the number one spot in the AIBA rankings for the first time in September last year, retained the top spot in the latest list which was released on February 8 with 2513 points, followed by Emilio Correa (2300 pts) of Cuba, who had beaten Vijender in the semi-finals at Beijing.

Uzbek Abbos Atoev (1875 pts), to whom Vijender lost in the World Championship semifinals last year, stands at third place.

''I am feeling good, better after I came to know about the rankings. Obviously, there is nothing better than the top spot.

''I want to maintain it and stay at the top for a long time, may be till the 2016 Olympics,'' he asserted. At the Commonwealth Boxing Championships and Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010, Vijender will be up against pugilists from England, South Africa, Pakistan to name a few, and mentioned the Englishmen as the top contenders in the events. ''I believe the boxers from England will be tough opponents.

Even teams like Pakistan, Australia, Canada would be strong enough,'' stated Vijender, who also said Bongani Mwelase of South Aarica who defeated him at the finals of the 2006 CWG would be also hard nut to crack.

On the Indian challenge at CWG, he felt that the national pugilists - Asian gold medalist and Presidents Cup best boxer Suranjoy Singh, World Youth Championship gold medalist Thokchom Nanao Singh, Akhil Kumar and Dinesh Kumar among others - are in fantastic form and can give a tough fight to their rivals. ''I hope all the Indians to perform well and bring laurels to the country. But my pick would be Suranjoy, Nanao and Dinesh who I believe can make a mark at the event,'' he stated. Vijender, who was sidelined due to an injury after the World Championships at Milan, said he was doing fine now and wants to maintain his fitness till the end of the year and achieve more glory for the country.

Ensure there's nothing like Munich massacre at CWG

India will have to prepare for all possible counter measures to terror regardless of the price to ensure that the Commonwealth Games do not have something like another Munich massacre, warns a top security solutions provider from Israel.

"The security drill should begin with the training of the police force, mounting strategic surveillance, relevant search protocols and putting in place a command and control structure for better coordination between the sentinels, hospitals, emergency transport and the fire department to thwart attempts at subversion," Offer Einav, chief executive officer of Israel-based security solutions firm Tops-SecureGATE, told reporters.

Einav has been working with the Indian government and security agencies in Mumbai for the last two months to create urban security checks.

The Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games is a huge media event which will reach approximately "three billion spectators" and "anything can happen", he said.

"If you browse through the history of world sports, two attacks stand out for their scale of horror, loss of life and damage -- the 1972 strike at the Munich Olympics in which an Israeli delegation was killed by a militant outfit called the Black September and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic compound attack," Einav reminded.

Keeping in mind the magnitude of participation and the number of visitors, India will have to take all possible "counter measures regardless of the price to ensure that the games are peaceful", he said.

"Add to it the fact that India has been under threat for the past few years."

The security expert with nearly three decades of experience is considered an authority in homeland and aviation security in Israel.

Tops-SecureGATE has launched the 'TriGate' technology - a three-tier security umbrella, which Einav says will change the nature of urban security in India.

"The system which has been successful in tightening domestic security in Israel operates on three levels - identification of threat and risk management matrix which deals with likelihood of attacks, potential impact and damage, manpower, technology, mitigation, protocol and procedures like relevant frisking methods and surveillance; security planning implementation of a command and control system; and customer realisation. We are offering top-notch Israeli knowhow and technology," he said.

Throwing light on the relevance of the system in India, Einav said: "It took Mumbai three days to crawl back to its feet after the 26/11 strikes, but ideally an establishment -- suppose the coffee shop of the Taj Mahal Hotel (Delhi) we are in -- is attacked, it should reopen within three hours to instil confidence in people".

The TriGate security technology will address situations like this with its mitigation and recovery plan, Einav claimed.

"Situations like these need to be solved as quickly as possible for 10 people cannot hold India under siege and four terrorists cannot terrorise the city of London."

"The 21st century security applications should be proactive. It should not be a system that is waiting to be heated. The system should be based on manpower - educated and trained men who are capable of understanding and assessing the situation."

Einav felt that "India was passing through the same situation that Europe was passing through after the Lockerbie attack in 1988 in which an Pan-Am airliner was blown up by terrorists".

The security expert feared "that since Asia had a huge aviation infrastructure, it was likely to be targeted by terrorists."

"Aviation is the prime target. Crashing one of India's airliners in midair could have a greater impact," Einav warned.