Intrusion detection system at Delhi airport stuck

Even as Indira Gandhi International Airport gets a facelift for the Commonwealth Games 2010, the highly sophisticated intrusion detection system has suffered a setback.

The installation of the perimeter intrusion detection system (PIDS), which is armed with thermal-imaging cameras, video-recorders and radars to detect movement of individuals and vehicles at the airport, has been delayed because of last-minute chan-ges in the original project.

Another reason for the delay is National Highway Authority of India and airport officials’ decision to construct a tunnel under the runway to connect the domestic terminal to the new integrated terminal (T3).

The ambitious project to bring metro to the airport has also contributed.

Officers of the Central Industrial Security Force that guards the Delhi airport said the project should have been completed by April 30. Sources said 70% of the project had been completed, but the remaining work was stuck.

“Installation of PIDS is part of the development projects related to terminal 3. The first phase of PIDS installation is nearing completion. The readiness of PIDS depends on the completion of the new project, ‘Northern Access Road’, connecting the domestic terminal to the new integrated terminal. In the first phase, we will cover 19 km of the total area of 27 km,” a Delhi International Airport Limited official said.

Delhi cops seek celeb help to create traffic awareness

In an ambitious and innovative project to create awareness about traffic rules before the Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi Police are planning to rope in celebrities.

Those on police radar are Akshay Kumar, Virender Sehwag, Shah Rukh Khan and Gautam Gambhir. All four belong to Delhi and have been participating in social events in the capital.

“We want to invite celebrities who have a huge fan following, so that people listen to them when they talk on subjects such as drunken driving and traffic rules. These stars will ask people to use the public transport system and carpool,” Ajay Chadha, special commissioner for traffic, said.

Apart from film stars and cricketers, police plan to invite musicians, singers, theatre personalities and people from the fashion fraternity to join hands in solving Delhi’s traffic problems before the Games.

This is the first time that Delhi Police are planning to take celebrity help. “Since we don’t have a huge budget, we expect actors and cricketers not to charge money for this project. It is a noble cause and I am sure celebrities will come forward to help,” he said.

Apart from asking people to maintain lane discipline, celebrities will ask drivers to make way for ambulances, fire tenders and police vans.

Delhi Police said the special drive was likely to start in June and would continue till October.

PM can’t make it, OC doesn’t know who to give first ticket

After the British Queen it is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s turn to leave Commonwealth Games high and dry. The PM will not be present at the function for launch of tickets as planned by the Commonwealth Organising Committee (OC). It is learnt that with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also expressing his inability to attend, the committee is now busy finding a suitable personality who can be presented with the first ticket.

The committee had first planned to launch the tickets on June 1, but the function was put off till June 4 as there was no clarity on who will be presented the first ticket. The committee wanted the PM to get the first ticket, but Prime Minister’s Office has expressed inability to attend the function, though Singh will be in Delhi on the day.

“We are working out details for the launch on Friday. We will be able to tell you the details by tomorrow,” said Organising Committee general secretary Lalit Bhanot from Pune.

On Friday, the committee plans to launch the tickets along with the website for online booking, a schedule book for all events and a Games handbook with details of various business establishments, contact points and so on. Top sportsmen like shooter Abhinav Bindra will be present during the launch.

Ticket to the games
The tickets are priced between Rs 50 and Rs 1,000 for all sporting events, while the opening and closing ceremonies tickets cost between Rs 750 and Rs 50,000.

Railway PSU IRCTC has already been roped in to sell the tickets from June 4. The committee hopes to sell 1.7 million tickets in all.

The tickets have been designed with inbuilt security mechanism to ensure there is no counterfeiting. All tickets have been barcoded and will be printed at Indian Security Printing Press and will carry information about the seat allotted.

The ticket holder will be photographed at the entry of the stadium and the police will have a database of all spectators.

Preparations for Commonwealth Games on track

Preparations for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October are at an advanced stage, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government asserted in its report card Tuesday.

The report card of UPA-II, released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on completion of one year in office, said the prestigious event presents an excellent opportunity to herald the country’s emergence as a significant sporting nation and showcase its organisational capacity.

“The UPA government has approved a scheme for the preparation of Indian teams for the Commonwealth Games with a budget of Rs.678 crore, which is being implemented,” said the report.

It said the government has approved a budget of Rs.11,494 crore for the successful conduct of the Games scheduled October 3-14 in the capital.

A total of 51 Commonwealth countries are participating in the mega-event.

“Besides promoting closer ties between the people of the Commonwealth countries and promoting tourism, this mega multi-disciplinary sports event will provide the nation with state-of-the-art international standard sports infrastructure,” the report card said.

According to it, over 25,000 volunteers from the National Service Scheme (NSS), National Cadet Corps (NCC), universities and colleges in and around Delhi would act as guides to sportspersons, spectators and tourists.

“It will also result in the upgradation of city infrastructure on an unprecedented scale,” it added.

CWG preparation: Increase in 'Definite' Hotel Rooms for tourists

There has been an increase in the number of 'Definite' rooms being prepared for the upcoming Commonwealth Games over the past few months, a review by the Ministry of Tourism said.

The review shows that there are 11,793 definite rooms to cater to tourists during the Games, showing an increase of 812 rooms since the previous review. Further, 8,659 rooms have been completed, out of the overall 11,793 'definite' rooms, it was revealed at a high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of Secretary Tourism Sujit Banerjee recently to take stock of the various arrangements related to the augmentation of hotel accommodation coming up for the Commonwealth Games in the National Capital Region of Delhi.

The performance of Haryana has been consistent with nearly 93 per cent of the 'definite' 7,221 rooms having been completed. The review indicated commendable performance by Uttar Pradesh since the last meeting of the Task Force held in April 2010. There are 377 functional rooms and 609 definite rooms showing an increase of 71 rooms and 303 rooms respectively in NOIDA. In respect to Greater NOIDA, the definite rooms have shown an increase by 408 rooms and thus 569 rooms have now been placed in the definite category. In Ghaziabad, there would be 672 functional rooms, and the definite category now stands at 1,363 rooms showing an increase of 295 rooms. All the land owning agencies, vis a vis, DDA, the Haryana Government, Uttar Pradesh and other stakeholders vis a vis MCD, NDMC, Ministry of Urban Development, DJB, BSES, ITDC attended the meeting.

At the meeting, the Secretary, Tourism reviewed all the new hotel projects coming up for the CWG-2010 along with the licensed Guest Houses, Bed and Breakfast establishments, DDA Housing flats located at Vasant Kunj which would be operated by ITDC. The Secretary stressed the need to ensure the timely completion of the remaining 3,134 'definite rooms by DDA, Haryana and other land owning agencies and desired that all efforts may be made to complete the maximum of 'likely' rooms into a 'definite' category.

It was requested that all the land owning agencies should also take up the upgradation and beautification of the surrounding areas and approach roads to the new hotel projects which are coming up. It was again emphasised that Setting-up of a Single Window System for the grant of various clearances to the hotels would be a positive step in this direction. It was also informed that the issue of clearances was critical for the hotels, as the benefits announced by the Government of the 5 year Tax Holiday would be available to 2, 3 and 4 star category hotels under sections 80-ID of the Income Tax Act, only if they started operation by July 31.

It is estimated that around 11,028 rooms would be available from the licensed Guest Houses in the NCT of Delhi. The Ministry of Tourism is providing skill development training to the owners and the staff of these identified licensed Guest Houses through the IHM, Pusa. Beautification / upgradation of the surrounding areas to Guest Houses in Karol Bagh, and Pahar Ganj was reviewed and MCD was directed to complete all the works regarding upgradation /beautification of the identified major and internal roads, urinal blocks, rotaries, parks and signages etc. The Secretary (Tourism) advised that these works be reviewed on a more regular basis to ensure that these are completed by June 30.

The meeting was informed that recently, Tourism Minister Kumari Selja had personally reviewed the progress of CWG related accommodation and beautification work at Paharganj on May 24.

With regard to the Bed & Breakfast establishments, It was informed during the meeting that presently there are a total of 2,007 rooms in the NCR of Delhi (1,230 rooms in Delhi and 777 rooms in the NCR ie. Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad).

The Representative of the Delhi Government informed that efforts are being made to expedite all pending applications and for wider publicity of the Scheme to enlist more homeowners to join the scheme. Secretary (Tourism) directed that the list of all the Bed and Breakfast establishment should be up dated on the official website of the Games Travel Office for wider publicity. Mr Sujit Banerjee, while appreciating the efforts made so far, directed all the concerned agencies / departments to regularly review and monitor the creation of accommodation and the measures for upgrading the infrastructure being undertaken so that sufficient time is available for booking and reservation by the tourists well before the Games.

Marathon proves trial run for Commonwealth Games

AUSTRALIA'S biggest marathon was launched in lavish style on the Gold Coast yesterday, with Premier Anna Bligh vowing to use the two-day event as an integral part of the city's 2018 Commonwealth Games bid.

Ms Bligh also announced a new $250,000 tourism marketing campaign aimed at luring runners to participate in the 2010 Gold Coast Airport Marathon and spend extra nights in the city.

She said next month's marathon would be a perfect opportunity to showcase the Coast's prowess at hosting a major sporting event.

"It's also a great world-class international event where the Gold Coast can really show what it's capable of," she said.

"It's a great feather in the cap that we'll be showcasing to the Commonwealth Games delegates next year."

Ms Bligh said interstate and foreign competitors, particularly from Asia, would be a major target of the tourism campaign.

More than 6700 runners from outside Queensland, including almost 2000 international participants, contested last year's event, and more are expected this year.

Helensvale trio to target Delhi gold

BRETT Wilkie is just steps from the pinnacle of his lawn bowling career after he was named to make his first appearance at the Commonwealth Games in October.

But the journey will be complete if Wilkie can cap his dream debut by helping Australia to gold in the men's triples in Delhi and add a Commonwealth Games title to the World Champion of Champions singles crown he secured last year.

On a huge day for the Helensvale Bowls Club, Wilkie will join 2006 gold medallists and men's triples teammate Mark Casey and women's pairs member Lynsey Armitage as the only Queensland bowlers in the 12-person team for Delhi.

"This is the pinnacle for me, I've worked hard for a lot of years and been on the fringe for a lot of years," said Wilkie of his selection.

"This is the biggest thing for me that I've been involved in and I can't wait to join the other guys and help them try and defend the title."

"But it's also so wonderful that the club can have three representative and hopefully we can return with some strong results and make them proud."

Married last weekend at Robina Woods, Casey's return to national duties comes as a reward for his patience after the 28-year-old was sensationally dumped from the team in 2008, with selectors saying it was to bring through new talent.

"He has worked his way back in there after a break," said Wilkie, who was groomsman at Casey's wedding.

"I'm really happy for him because we are good friends and we have played alongside each other for a long time now."

While it will mark a first Games for Wilkie, who turns 36 on Saturday, it will be yet another major tournament for Armitage, who at 26 has already turned out 146 times for Australia.

Despite going into Delhi without her partner from 2006, Karen Murphy, Armitage was excited and fired up to take it to their rivals with 19-year-old NSW teenager Natasha Van Eldik.

"The first time I was blown away to make it and this time I had been playing well in the lead-up, and while I wasn't expecting it, I was confident," said Armitage of her selection.

"I'm just glad I have the chance to defend my gold medal."

Australia's Commonwealth Games team:

MEN, singles: Leif Selby, 37, (St Johns Park, NSW). Pairs: Mark Berghofer, 25, (St Johns Park, NSW), Aron Sherriff, 24, (Halekulani, NSW).
Triples: Brett Wilkie, 35, (Club Helensvale, Qld), Wayne Turley, 37, (Taren Point, NSW), Mark Casey, 28, (Club Helensvale, Qld)

WOMEN: singles: Kelsey Cottrell, 20, (St Johns Park, NSW). Pairs: Lynsey Armitage, 26, (Club Helensvale, Qld), Natasha Van Eldik, 19, (Raymond Terrace, NSW). Triples: Sharyn Renshaw, 48, (St Johns Park, NSW), Claire Duke, 26, (Cabramatta, NSW), Julie Keegan, 45, (St Johns Park, NSW)