Queen’s Baton to glow in Darjeeling - July date for relay’s hill foray

The Queen’s Baton Relay for the Commonwealth Games, Delhi, will be brought to the Queen of the Hills in July.Darjeeling is among the few places other than the capitals of the states and Union Territories where the baton will be taken. According to officials, the town has been chosen as the hills are of international interest because of the famed Darjeeling Tea and tourism potential.
“It will be a historic day for Darjeeling. We will welcome the relay in a grand manner and we are finalising the details,” Surendra Gupta, the district magistrate of Darjeeling, told The Telegraph.

“We will be holding a meeting in Darjeeling on April 16 to work out the details of the baton’s reception. This will be followed by another meeting with the state home secretary in Calcutta on April 23,” said Gupta. “The exact date for the baton to reach Darjeeling will be announced after April 23.”

The relay — a tradition since the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, in 1958 — was flagged off by the British Queen at Buckingham Palace in the presence of Indian President Pratibha Patil on October 29.

The baton will enter India through the Wagah border on June 25 and will be taken to all the state capitals. “We will receive the baton at Rangpo — it will be flown to Sikkim — and we will hold events right from Rangpo to Darjeeling (along Peshok Road). It will be kept at the Gymkhana Club Hall where a cultural event will be held in the evening,” said Gupta.

From Darjeeling, the baton will be taken by road to Kurseong and Siliguri before being flown to Guwahati the same day.

The Queen’s Baton will travel more than 190,000km in 340 days, visiting 71 countries of the Commonwealth and will contain a special message to the athletes from Queen Elizabeth II, inscribed on an 18 carat gold palm leaf and housed in a jewellery box inside the baton. The message is to be read out at the opening ceremony of the Games.

The relay for this year’s Delhi games will be the longest in the history of the Commonwealth Games with 100 days of the 340 days’ journey being kept aside to take the baton to all the states and the Union Territories.

The Queen’s Baton 2010 Delhi has incorporated innovative technologies. The baton will have a “capture card” that has the ability to capture images and sounds as it travels. It will also be fitted with a GPS system so that the exact location of the baton can be traced at all times.

“The baton is imbedded with light emitting diodes which transition into colours of the national flag of the country where it is,” says a Commonwealth Games handbook.

650 firemen to be deployed for Commonwealth Games

Delhi Fire Services would be deploying 650 firemen for the safe conduct of the Commonwealth Games in October and purchasing GPS-enabled automatic vehicle tracking system to cut their response time in case of any fire, a senior official said Tuesday.

‘We have made a three-tier fire safety plan for the Games and would be deploying 600-650 men,’ Delhi Fire Services (DFS) chief R.C. Sharma told reporters here.

He said there will be an in-built fire safety system in each stadium and the fire fighting vehicles would be be equipped with secured wireless communication system. The Commonwealth Games village near Akshardham temple will have a dedicated fire station.

The fire chief said the service was procuring GPS-enabled automatic vehicle tracking system that will help in improving the response time of the fire-fighters, find the shortest route and facilitate reinforcements.

Sharma said the city will have four more fire stations at the Civic Centre, Games Village, Shahdara and Mayur Vihar district centre before the start of the Games.

DFS is also considering to buy hydraulic platform that can take fire personnel to a 70-metre height.

Cash-strapped Delhi govt not ready to fund Metro phase-III

Facing severe financial crunch due to huge spending on the Commonwealth Games projects, Delhi government today said it will not be able to allocate required funds for the third phase of the Metro network.

Finance minister AK Walia said instead of the city government, the cash-rich Delhi Development Authority should contribute financial resources for expansion of third phase of Metro network.

"We have written to the DDA for funding the third phase of the Metro network. They are earning a lot of money by selling and developing land in the city. They should share their financial resources for expansion of Metro," Walia told reporters.

The DMRC plans to start the construction work on Phase-III by the end of 2010. In Phase-III, the DMRC envisages connecting Jahangirpur with Sarai Kale Khan ISBT, Dilshad Garden with Ghaziabad ISBT, Airport link-Sushant Lok (Gurgaon), Mundka-Delhi border-Bahadurgarh, Badarpur-YMCA chowk and Gurgaon.

Walia said Delhi's contribution for the third phase of the Metro expansion has been estimated at Rs558 crore in the year 2010-11 and Rs2119.50 crore in 2011-12.
The Union Urban Development Ministry had told Delhi that the Centre will contribute half of the total project cost while Delhi government will have to cough up the other half.

The minister said Delhi government would pay its outstanding share of Rs1,417 crore for the completion of the second phase of the network.

Last year, Delhi government had sanctioned Rs3 crore for the preparation of detailed project report (DPR) of the third phase of the Metro network.

Delhi government is going through financial difficulties especially after the Centre substantially curtailed allocation to it in the Union Budget.

Three-tier fire-fighting plan for CWG

The capital's fire brigade on Tuesday unveiled a three-tier fire-fighting plan for the upcoming Commonwealth Games during which around 650 firemen will be deployed in venues with sophisticated equipment.

The Delhi Fire Services is also procuring GPS-enabled Automatic Vehicle Tracking System before the Games which will help in improving the response time of the fire-fighters, find the shortest route and facilitate reinforcement.

"Around 600-650 personnel will be deployed for the Games," Delhi Fire Services (DFS) Director R C Sharma told reporters here.

All the stadia will have a dedicated fire station with upto three fire tenders and backpack fire-fighters helping in evacuation of sportspersons and spectators in case of an eventuality.

The Games village coming up at Akshardham in east Delhi will have a dedicated fire station while the Control Room for the Games will be set up at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The fire-fighters will also have a change in colour in their uniform with the present 'khaki' giving way to bright orange so as to distinguish them from police and paramilitary.

Providing details about the arrangements, Sharma said there will be an in-built fire safety system in each stadium. Fire fighters will be spread across the facility to douse fire and help evacuate people in case of an emergency.

The second layer is that of deployment of rescue workers with fire-fighting equipment in a backpack while the third layer will involve standby mobile teams outside each stadia.

The fire-fighters will also be equipped with secured wireless communication system using TETRA technology, Sharma said.

The DFS is also procuring five fast response vehicles with water-mist technology before the Games. The water-mist technology will help in attending to the emergency instantly.

Before the Games, he said, the capital will have four more fire stations in Civic Centre, Games Village, Shahdara and Mayur Vihar district Centre. With this, the capital will have 55 fire stations.

The Fire Services is also planning to procure hydraulic platform which can take the personnel to 70 metre high. Once procured, Delhi will be the third city in the country to get such an equipment after Kolkata and Mumbai.

"We cannot say that there will be no fire incidents during the Games. There may be incidents. We cannot avoid incidents. But we are prepared and any incident will be tackled immediately," Sharma said.

He said the fire fighters will talk to police and Games volunteers on how to help evacuation of people from stadia.

Saurav eyeing doubles, mixed doubles medals in CWG

Leeds based Indian national squash champion Saurav Ghosal is eyeing a medal in the doubles and mixed doubles competition each of the event at the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held in India from Oct 3.

“We have a better chance in doubles than in singles in the Commonwealth Games.” said Ghosal who is currently world number 29. Ghosal said he was yet to identify his partners for the Games, but hoped to be paired with country’s numero uno women’s player Joshna Chinappa in mixed doubles.

Ghosal, currently in the city for the PSA Indian Challenger which is slated to start Wednesday, said he wanted to take one match at a time in the tournament.

“Top players like Adrian (Adrian Grant) and Cameron (Cameron Pilley) are playing. So it’s going to be tough but I’ll focus on one match at a time.” said the 25-year-old who is seeded eighth in the tournament.

“If I win tomorrow the draw opens up. Then I play top seeded Adrian and we have had close matches in the past. So that’s a crucial tie for me.” added Ghosal who opens his account with lower ranked Aaron Frankcomb on Wednesday .

After the city competition, Saurav has a series of tournaments lined up including the Asian Championships in May, the Super Series in Cairo (May 15-22) and Australia in mid August besides the Cathay Pacific Super Series in Hong Kong.

He would play the English Grand Prix in September. Reflecting on last year, Saurav said: “In 2009 I broke into the top 30 beating some good international players. So that was good. But I did not have lot of wins. I would like to change that this year. Hope for the best.”

The Kolkata born Ghosal feels squash as a sport can be popular in India, where cricket holds a monopoly, if the country’s stars can break into the top 20 or 10.

“If players like me and Joshna (Joshna Chinappa) can perform like this and even better to break into the top 20 or 10, sponsors will automatically come up and the sport will get its due media coverage. We are trying hard. Infrastructure in schools needs to develop. Then only children will grow an interest in the sport. The state body has some responsibilities to,” Ghosal said.

“The infrastructure in Chennai in quite good. Delhi is building a new squash complex which is encouraging. We need more efforts like this to foster the development of the game,” he added on a positive note.

Reliance Industries(RIL) Commissions 1-MW Solar PV Plant

RIL Solar Group installed and commissioned the country's first 1-MW solar plant in less than 3 months.

Reliance Industries (RIL) in India has successfully implemented and commissioned a 1-megawatt (MW) solar plant on the roof of the Thyagaraj Stadium in New Delhi. The Thyagaraj Stadium, developed by the Government of Delhi, is planned to be a model green stadium and will host Netball in the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

RIL Solar Group has also installed systems in the R K Khanna Tennis Complex for solar LED street lights and garden lights in the Commonwealth Games Village. With these, RIL Solar Group has installed 100% of the solar PV power generating equipment for the Commonwealth Games 2010.

The Group has also implemented three 2.6 kW solar PV power plants on the roof of individual tennis courts in the R K Khanna Tennis Complex, which will play host to the tennis event during the games. There are also 34 back-up solar PV systems of 3 kW each along with 180 solar LED street lights and 500 garden lights in the Commonwealth Games Village which will house athletes, coaching and support staff.

RIL Solar Group installed and commissioned the country’s first 1-MW solar plant in less than 3 months. The power plant is expected to generate around 1.4 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year. It would cater to the power requirements of the stadium and the surplus would be fed to the grid at 11 kV.

20 monuments to be illuminated for Commonwealth Games

Twenty protected monuments including the Purana Qila, Safdarjung Tomb, Jantar Mantar, Red Fort Complex Qutb Minar and Humayuns Tomb will be illuminated for the Commonwealth Games. The Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) had been entrusted with the responsibility of lighting, an official statement said here today.

The other monuments that have been identified for illumination are Humayuns Tomb Complex, Delhi Gate, Ajmeri Gate, Khairul Manazil Mosque, Sher Shah Gate, Subz Burj, Khan-i-Khana Tomb, Bara Khamba (Hazrat Nizamuddin), Najaf Khan Tomb, Kotla Feroz Shah, Khooni Darwaza, Biran Ka Gumbad, Green Park, Dadi Poti, Hauz Khas, Chhoti Gumti, Hauz Khas and Qila Rai Pithora (Conservation Centre).

Archaeological Survey of India would not be incurring any expenditure in this regard except the recurring electricity charges, the statement clarified.