Wake-Up Call For Us: Kalmadi, Fennell's Letter Has CWG Organising Body In A Tizzy

Michael Fennell's letter seems to have had a huge impact on the Organising Committee (OC) of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, as it has left the body in a tizzy.

The OC, which came in for sharp criticism from the Commonwealth Games Federation president earlier this week, admitted on Wednesday that the letter was indeed a "wake-up call" and that it was planning to ensure that Fennell won't have much to complain about when he visits the Capital next month for the General Assembly.

"We respect his views. It was sort of a wake-up call. The Games will be held in time. We will clear things when he visits next month," said Suresh Kalmadi, OC chairman and president of the Indian Olympic Association. The underfire politician was quick to add that he did not think Fennell's desire to meet the Prime Minister had anything to do with his lack of trust in the OC. "I don't think so. As far as his desire to meet the PM is concerned, we have referred the matter to sports ministry," he said.

Kalmadi, flanked by his trusted lieutenants and senior members of the OC, stressed that the preparations for the Games was heading in right direction and there was "great coordination" between the stakeholders.

"All work is going on at good pace. We have a great team (OC) to do the work. Government of India is fully behind us. There's a great co-ordination between everybody - IOA, government as well as the opposition," he said in his first interaction with the media ever since Fennell's letter came out in the open. Kalmadi said India is on track to host a "great Games" and to push his point, he cited the example of the Afro Asian Games and the National Games, the events which India conducted "successfully" in the past.

If the OC sees these events as benchmark, then the CWG 2010 are surely going to run into rough weather. The Afro Asian Games were termed a jinxed event after repeated postponements before being held in Hyderabad in 2003.

Similarly, IOA has struggled in the past to host the National Games and in fact the next edition of the Games in Jharkhand has been postponed several times and is finally scheduled to be held in November this year. Besides, the last year's Youth Commonwealth Games in Pune, the latest event to be conducted by IOA, were an operational disaster.

Meanwhile, OC's vice chairman , Randhir Singh, said the criticism was well-accepted. "Individuals do not matter. The idea of decentralisation means to involve more and more people in the process to make the Games a great one," he said, asking for decentralisation in OC.

Sports Budget 2009: Sports Ministry May Need More For 2010 CommonWealth Games

Sports Minister M S Gill has a reason to be cheerful after the Union Budget as he now sees his Ministry richer by Rs 3073 crore.

But the question is that how much of this amount will be actually spent on sports activity.

• Rs 2264 crore is earmarked just for the Commonwealth Games

• Rs 271 crore goes to youth affairs

• Youth and sports schemes in the Northeast are worth about Rs 95 crore

So, the actual money for sports works out to something near Rs 440 crore from which Rs 176 crore will go to the Sports Authority of India. Finally, what is left is Rs 264 crore.

The Government at the moment is not looking beyond the Commonwealth Games but what about other multi-discipline games. The Asian Games which are far more prestigious will be held a month after the Delhi Games and they seem to be low on the priority list.

“Even for training for the Asian Games money should come,” says President Indian Olympic Association Suresh Kalmadi.

Budget increased for completion Delhi CWG 2010 of venues

The Delhi government has significantly increased its budget to complete venues for next year's Commonwealth Games in a positive response to criticism over construction delays, domestic media reported on Tuesday.

The regional administration has allotted an extra 9 billion rupees ($184 million) for the Oct 3-14 event in its annual budget presented on Monday, The Hindu daily reported.

The administration and Games organising committee have been blamed for the tardiness in the completion of venues, which also forced the world badminton championships to be shifted from the capital to Hyderabad.

Delhi has allotted 21.05 billion rupees ($431.4 million) for completing projects for the multi-sports gathering, with around half the sum coming from the federal coffers.

Meanwhile, local authorities, keen to spruce up New Delhi and attract more tourists when the Games are held, planned to clear the streets of beggars and would introduce mobile courts to punish those caught, the paper said.

Consultants would advise on the landscape around games venues while rickety public transport buses are being replaced by new ones in the sprawling city of over 14 million people.

DDA to buy 333 flats in Commonwealth Games Village for Rs700 cr

The Delhi Development Authority, or DDA, will purchase 333 flats for around Rs700 crore in the Commonwealth Games Village in an effort to bail out cash-strapped real estate developer Emaar MGF Land Ltd. The firm is developing the village, scheduled for completion by the end of 2010

In a statement on Monday, DDA said it would buy the flats at Rs11,000 per sq. ft, which is below the rate being charged by Emaar from open market buyers. Currently, Emaar has priced the flats at around Rs12,500 per sq. ft. Emaar MGF is developing the project in partnership with DDA.

Of the total 1,168 flats, Emaar MGF was supposed to sell 768 flats at market rates in late 2011 and the rest were to be sold by DDA after the games at lower prices. Emaar MGF was to fund the construction through the sale of flats. Bookings opened in 2008.
The firm has so far sold around 260 flats.

The amount towards the cost of the apartments will be released in instalments and has been linked to various stages of completion of flats, the statement said.

“The DDA’s decision to invest in the Games Village is a very positive development,” an Emaar MGF spokesperson said.

According to the DDA statement, due to non-sale of flats, Emaar MGF had asked DDA for a loan of Rs1,000 crore. However, it added, at no point had DDA agreed to a loan.
Earlier, a committee consisting of officials from the Central Public Works Department, Housing and Urban Development Corp. Ltd, National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd and DDA was formed to decide on the bailout package to be given to Emaar. Subsequently, DDA has decided to buy flats rather than give a loan.

17 Months Before CommonWealth Games, City Has Only 650 Buses On Road,2010 target: 11,000

It was a humble beginning for a giant dream.In November 2007, Sheila Dikhsit's government launched the first batch of 12 low-floor buses in the Capital,promising a complete public transport revamp by the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The plan was to introduce 11,000 of them byOctober 2010.It's May 2009 already and only 650 low-floor buses, including 25 air-conditioned ones,arerunning in Delhi.

With just 17 months left before Delhi hosts the world's second largest sporting event after the Olympics, the government is getting jittery.The suppliers are reportedly struggling to meet the demand.

While Delhi Transport Corporation, a Delhi government undertaking, is to run 6,600 of these buses,the remaining will be run by private companies.These buses have to cover over 600 routes spread across 17 clusters in the city.

A concerned government called a meeting of the representatives of the two Indian bus manufacturers, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland,on Tuesday.

"The Tata Motors have said they are going to ramp up facilities at their Alwar and Lucknow plants within two months to manufacture 400 buses a month instead of the 300 that they now produce," Delhi chief secretary Rakesh Mehta said."Ashok Leyland too have some issues with DTC on the specification of the buses.They will be sorted out very soon," Mehta said.

A source in the Delhi government said delivering on the promise would be difficult for both companies."The manufacturers are yet to start delivering the 2,500 buses the DTC had placed an order for in mid-2008.The DTC is ready with another tender for 2,000 buses but waiting for the two companies to start delivering," the source,who is not authorised to talk to the media, said on condition of anonymity.

The Delhi government has also finalised the company to run buses on one of the 17 predefined clusters.The selections for the remaining 16 clusters will be finalised soon,signalling another major spike in demand for the two manufacturers.

The sources said problems havecompounded with the cen tral government's plan to introduce 15,000 low-floor buses in various Indian cities under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. Transport authorities of other states have also started approaching these manufacturers for their requirement of buses.

Safeguarding Delhi For Commonwealth Games:Police Procuring Gadgets & Technologies That Meet World Standards

With the Capital entering the final lap of preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the Delhi police are also gearing up for the grand event. Aiming to make it a truly memorable occasion for the participants and visitors, the force is busy charting out an impregnable security arrangement keeping in mind all the threat perceptions.

Under the modernisation schemes, the police have been procuring state-of-the-art gadgets and technologies that meet world standards. On the weaponry front, the force has placed demands for 400 Austrian Glock-17 semi-automatic pistols and about 200 MP 5 sub-machineguns. While the Glock pistols would be allocated for general law and order maintenance, the light-weight and sophisticated MP 5 would mainly form part of the armoury of the security cordon for the visiting dignitaries, sportsmen and VIPs from various countries.

An advance trunk communication system is also on the purchase list. The high-end technology will facilitate both dedicated and inter-linked networks for secure communication at stadiums and residential complexes of the participants. It will also be used for coordination during the movement of the sportsmen, dignitaries and VIPs.

"We are also planning to get a frequency jammer and more bullet-proof vehicles," said a police officer.

Exclusively for the Games, the Delhi police have floated global tenders for procurement of 55 X-ray scanners, four sets of equipment for anti-sabotage checking teams, about 200 multi-zonal door-frame metal detectors and 550 hand-held metal detectors.

Strengthening the general surveillance system, the force has been installing sophisticated closed-circuit television camera networks. The Rs.200 crore-project is envisaged to cover 58 market places and 27 border checkpoints. Helicopters will be used extensively for conducting aerial reconnaissance.
Surveillance gadgets

Procurement of access-control and surveillance gadgets for venues will be done by the respective managers, but the police would be consulted on their specifications and placements.

As part of the counter-terror and anti-sabotage measures, the police are upgrading their bomb-detection and disposal squads through procurement of bomb blankets. The police plan to induct 48 more trained sniffer dogs for anti-sabotage checks. Two more BDS teams, apart from the existing ones, are being raised.

The central police control room, the backbone of the force, has already been upgraded through installation of an automatic call distribution system and introduction of map projection and an LCD display panel comprising Global Positioning System locations and a GPS-based vehicle tracking system for real-time monitoring of PCR vans. The force will have a fleet of about 1,000 PCR vans by 2010.

For More Information visit The Hindu Safeguarding Delhi for the Games

IITTM launches ‘Earn-while-you-learn’ programme for Commonwealth Games 2010

Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management (IITTM) has launched new series of the ‘Earn-while-you-learn’ programme in order to prepare volunteers for the Commonwealth Games 2010. The programme will be imparted to around 3,000 selected students from colleges and universities from the National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby States in batches in the next one year. The commencement of the programme was officially inaugurated by Sujit Banerjee, Secretary – Tourism, Government of India at a function held at the IHM Pusa campus yesterday.

According to Prof Sitikantha Mishra, Director, IITTM, about 870 students will undergo the training programme during this summer in batches. The duration of the course is three weeks with six-hour programme every day. “We also want to utilise the holidays like Durga Puja, Diwali etc

for more information visit http://www.travelbizmonitor.com/iittm-launches-earnwhileyoulearn-programme-for-commonwealth-games-2010-6433