Commonwealth Games panel seeks Rs 2,307-cr loan waiver

The organising committee of the Commonwealth Games has asked the government to write off its Rs 2,307-crore debt, saying its earnings from sponsorships and television rights may not be enough to pay back the amount.

The Union government extended loans to the committee for developing competition and training venues for the Games to be held in New Delhi in October this year. The amount includes the Rs 687 crore the Cabinet sanctioned last week. The organising committee has requested that at least some part of the loans should be turned into a grant as the funds are being used for preparatory activities, a finance ministry official said.

“We understand that the committee has already started earning some revenue. So we feel that it should start paying off the loans now as it could be difficult to pay the entire amount after the Games are over,” he said, requesting anonymity. The government may look into the case of fresh loans later on, he added.

Sports and youth affairs minister MS Gill has thrown his weight behind the committee on the issue. He has written to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee asking for at least a partial waiver.

The finance ministry is not in favour of the proposal and is keen that the committee starts paying off the loan. The ministry has tightened the government spending in an effort to bring down fiscal deficit to 5.5% of the gross domestic product. Finance ministry officials said the latest tranche of Rs 687 crore might be waived off, depending on the actual revenue earned by the organising committee that is expected to earn Rs 1,780 crore from the Games. It has already earned about Rs 700 crore from sponsorships and television rights.

Students to add colour to Queen’s Baton Relay

With the city rolling out red carpet for the Commonwealth Games, the Delhi government has roped in schoolchildren to add that extra zing to the opening ceremony.

Students from various schools across the city will participate in the cultural presentation during the opening ceremony of the Games — the Queen’s Baton Relay — on October 3 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Students from 70 government schools, six government-aided schools and 16 private schools have already been auditioned between February 8 and February 20.

Nearly 50 students of Classes VII, VIII and X were selected from each of these school and they are now undergoing training for the ceremony, officials said.

The children were selected by special choreographers appointed by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee.

“We decided to select children from the age group of 14-16 years,” an Education department official said.

Lalit Bhanot, General Secretary of the organising committee, said, “We had our team of special choreographers to take auditions.”

Some of the private schools where auditions took place are Delhi Public School-R K Puram; DPS-Mathura Road; St Mark’s Girls Senior Secondary School- Meera Bagh; Ryan International School-Rohini and New State Academy Senior Secondary School in Pitampura.

“We went for students who were tall and physically, mentally and medically fit to participate in the event,” the Education department official added.

After training, rehearsals will begin in April and continue till October. “For first three months, the rehearsals will take place near their respective schools and later combined rehearsals will be held at a place identified by the organising committee, most likely at Army Polo ground near Dhaula Kuan, from July to September,” the official said.

The rehearsals will finally be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the last week of September

Holmes says alarm over Commonwealth Games security is premature

Dame Kelly Holmes has said that England will pull out of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October if security advisers suggest that the team have been targeted.

However, the double Olympic champion, who is the president of Commonwealth Games England, said she was convinced that would not be the case. Instead, Holmes said it was premature for any athlete to be pulling out of the event that could form invaluable preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London.

And, just as she feels that the security issue for this summer’s football World Cup finals in South Africa has been overblown, so she questioned the motives of anyone pulling out of Delhi seven months in advance.

“Security is always a factor,” she said. “But we have security forces out there and if they suggested to us that our athletes were at risk then it is an absolute no-brainer — we won’t go. But they haven’t done anything of the sort. Not one thing has been suggested.

“Our teams have been going out every month and we have been taking the national governing bodies out there. It’s a long way off and it is absolutely pointless people making assumptions now. We will leave it to the last minute.”

The issue has been brewing since an unnamed senior Whitehall source was quoted as saying that there was “virtually no chance” of England sending a team to Delhi. Then last month the Pakistani branch of al-Qaeda threatened that there would be “consequences” if the international community supported the Commonwealth Games, cricket’s Indian Premier League and the men’s hockey World Cup. The hockey passed off in the Indian capital without incident this month and England, who lost in the semi- finals, are preparing to improve on that showing at the Commonwealth Games.

Holmes, who won her first significant gold medal at the 1994 Games in Victoria, Canada, said: “The key thing to ask is whether it is important to our sportspeople and, as someone who has been there, I can say it absolutely is. The Commonwealths taught me about multisport competition before going to an Olympics and that is so important. You go to an Olympics and it is overwhelming. You can’t imagine it unless you have had some sort of experience.

“The Commonwealths also allow young people to get among the medals and taste that. Most of our well-known stars went there.”

Flying out of Delhi may become more expensive

It is the result of a 42% increase in the cost of modernizing the airport before the Commonwealth Games in October

Passengers will have to pay steeper fees when flying from the Capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) after June—the result of a 42% increase in the cost of modernizing the airport before the Commonwealth Games in October.

The board of Delhi International Airport (Pvt.) Ltd (DIAL) on Thursday set the final cost of the project at Rs12,700 crore, up from the Rs8,975 crore estimated earlier, according to a company official who asked not to be named. The revision was adopted at a board meeting.

The increase clears the way for raising existing charges and possibly levying new ones on passengers using IGIA. It would also mean higher charges such as landing, parking and navigation fees for airlines.

IGIA, being modernized by a consortium led by GMR Infrastructure Ltd, will be the biggest and most expensive airport in India when the under-construction Terminal T3 is commissioned in June, offering passengers a world-class, integrated domestic-and-international facility with the latest in equipment.

For passengers and airlines, it will come at a price because the developer would have to pass on the increased project cost to end users.

Passengers are already being charged to help the developer recover Rs1,827 crore, or 20% of the earlier project estimate of Rs8,975 crore. They are paying Rs200 for taking domestic flights out of IGIA and Rs1,300 for flying abroad until 1 March 2012, as an airport development fee.

“We have to audit the cost given by them (DIAL), which will take six-eight weeks after which a final tariff would be arrived at,” Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (Aera) chairman Yashwant S. Bhave had said earlier this week.

Aera is the new airport regulator and approval of the new fees at IGIA is likely to be its first big decision, posing a potential test of its ability to protect consumer interests.

DIAL is expected to submit the final cost estimate to Aera for clearance by the end of this month or early next month after which the regulator will appoint an external auditor to vet costs and then decide on the new airport charges.

The new charges could either be an extension of the duration of the existing airport development fee, an increase in the amount charged, or an additional passenger charge such as a user development fee, or a combination of such measures, said the DIAL official quoted above.

The method of arriving at these charges is likely to be finalized by next month, Bhave had said.

India’s airlines are laden with losses and debt, and there are concerns about the impact of increased tariffs on air traffic growth, which has started to pick up after a two-year downturn.

“Rules should be made for the customer and not just the rich customer,” said G.R. Gopinath, who pioneered low-cost aviation in India with the erstwhile Air Deccan and recently launched the cargo carrier Deccan 360. “The fundamental problem is there must be competition in all sectors. Competition will bring down cost for the consumer, which I think is not there in some airports.”

Gopinath said the regulator should strike a balance between the interests of consumers and the airport operator when setting tariffs.

“Airport cannot be allowed to lose, but they cannot exploit (consumers),” he said. Airports are built on public land given at concessional rates by the government, and “this concession has to be shared with the public”.

In October 2006, the cost estimated for the first phase of IGIA modernization by DIAL was Rs5,900 crore. The cost estimated for the Mumbai airport modernization has risen from Rs5,826 crore to Rs9,802 crore.

“A regulator is always supposed to regulate competition and not monopoly,” Gopinath said, recommending the government be more flexible in allowing competing airports to come up.

Return on investment alone does not justify what an airport operator can be allowed to charge passengers, he added.

NDMC organises training on 'Anti-tobacco and No smoking'

Nodal officers and officials of different departments of NDMC are receiving training in ensuring effective enforcement of 'no smoking' zones in the NDMC area, in view of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games.

The training programme is being organised by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) in association with the Health department of Delhi Government as part of the massive anti-smoking drive of the NDMC.

Fines will be imposed on those found smoking in the NDMC areas in order to enforce the Cigarette and other Tobacco products Act-2003 and Delhi Prohibition of smoking and non-smokers Health Protection Act-1996 with related regulations, an NDMC spokesperson said today.

The NDMC headquarters and other public places within its jurisdiction have been notified as smoke-free zone.

Illegal roadside vendors selling tobacco products without any 'tehbazari' rights in NDMC area, would be removed shortly.

During the drive, the health department of NDMC would also hold workshops for stakeholders in its area like government and non-Government organisations (NGOs), institutions, restaurant and hotel association, market traders association, residence welfare association, school and college representative and they would be trained to enforce anti-tobacco and anti-smoking laws in their premises.

Caitlin’s studied approach to Delhi bid

Caitlin McClatchey admits next week’s British Swimming Championships in Sheffield is not her sole priority right now.

Despite the carrot of earning a spot at October’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi – McClatchey is also juggling a 12,000-word dissertation for her Politics and Social Psychology degree at Loughborough University.

At the 2006 Common-wealth Games in Melbourne – McClatchey earned double gold in the 200m and 400m, but the Scot revealed studying had been affecting her preparations.

“I have got a lot on because I am doing my university dissertation as well as trying to fit in all my training,” said McClatchey.

“I am trying to do as many sessions as I can ahead of the Champion-ships but my training has suffered. I am still doing a lot of hard work, but my coach is maybe letting me off one session a week.

“I am confident I can still go there and swim well despite all the work I have been doing because I have been doing some good sessions so, hopefully, I can go to Sheffield and perform.”

Despite being selected for February’s GB v Germany Swim Meet in Swansea – McClatchey, who carried the British flag at the event, was forced to withdraw with a bout of sinusitis.

In the aftermath of landing double Melbourne gold – McClatchey, who will swim in the 100m, 200m and 400m at Ponds Forge, has watched on in frustration as the likes of Jo Jackson and Rebecca Adlington have hogged the headlines.

But McClatchey, who can also qualify for Delhi at the Scottish National Championships later this year, is keen to put down a marker against Britain’s best.

India's Commonwealth Games plagued by delay, anger

A countdown clock outside the Commonwealth Games offices in New Delhi shows 192 days left until the Indian capital hosts the 17-sport event. But the city still looks like a messy construction site.

The main stadium is months overdue and remains a tangle of cranes, and residents are furious over new taxes to pay for the Games.

Meanwhile, dozens of construction workers have died and hundreds of thousands are laboring in unsafe conditions in the rush to prepare the city for the Games, a court-appointed investigation said.

India hoped that by hosting athletes from the 71 countries of the Commonwealth, the former British Empire, it would boost its global image and become a contender for the Olympics. Now, with the Oct. 3 start date approaching, many are wondering whether it's worth it.

"For poor people there are no benefits from all this," said Ramesh Dubey, a sidewalk vendor angry over a proposed hike in cooking gas taxes. "This whole show is by rich people and will only benefit rich people."

Suresh Kalmadi, head of India's organizing committee, has promised that problems will be resolved.

"With the support of the governments of India and Delhi, we are doing everything to produce a great Games," he told visiting Commonwealth delegates this month.

Numerous hurdles remain.

The main Jawaharlal Nehru stadium - which is to host the opening and closing ceremonies and the main track events - is a giant shell. Dozens of laborers ferry cement and bricks in baskets on their heads. Cranes dot the sprawling complex, and the road around it is a dug-up mound of dirt.

There are similar scenes at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee swimming complex.

Both complexes were supposed to have been finished by December.

"Certainly it's cutting it very, very fine with Jawaharlal Nehru stadium and the swimming stadium," said Mike Hooper, the CEO of the Commonwealth Games Federation, who is in New Delhi helping oversee the preparations.


The stadiums are now scheduled to be finished in June.

"If they don't adhere to these new revised, revised deadlines then we do have real concerns about the operational delivery and the pressure it will put on the organizing committee," Hooper told The Associated Press.

Many New Delhi roads are lined with mounds of rubble, often forcing several lanes of traffic into a single, chaotic one. New construction projects crop up every few weeks.

An attempt to clean up Connaught Place, a collection of colonial-era buildings at the heart of the city's business district, has choked shops in the area.

A once-busy book store managed by Puneet Sharma is now mostly deserted, surrounded by scaffolding and rubble that has blocked access.

"They have known about the Games since 2003 and yet we were given no notice about when work would start in our area," Sharma said. "It's all very unplanned and haphazard."

Indian organizers insist the construction and roadwork will be wrapped up by the end of June.

"There have been some delays," accepts Rahul Bhatnagar, a senior official from India's Sports Ministry, who is overseeing the preparations, "but the venues will all be done well in time for the test events and the main Games."

The cash-strapped government is pumping in more money to the nearly $3 billion event. Last week, the national government announced it was lending the organizers an additional $150 million to pay for fixtures and equipment required at the venues.

On Monday, the city government said it would increase taxes on everything from cell phones to tea, mostly to offset the cost of the Games.

As the government scrambled to meet the new deadlines, allegations have cropped of negligence and abuse at the building sites.

A panel appointed by the New Delhi High Court said last week that at least 43 workers were killed because of dangerous work sites and a lack of proper safety gear.

The report said nearly 415,000 contract workers at construction sites related to the event were not paid adequately by private contractors and were forced to work overtime for no extra money.

The government says it will monitor the construction agencies to ensure all labor laws are followed.

Bhatnagar, the government official, said just a little more patience will yield rich dividends for this city of nearly 16 million and leave it with a lasting legacy.

"Right now everything is dug up, but by the end of June a beautiful city will begin emerging," he said.