IS DELHI READY TO PLAY? (Commonwealth Games)

[Desi Cartman]

Exactly two more years and our very own Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will be what The Nest was to Beijing 2008. Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium will be our very own Wukesong. Or will they? Times Citydoes a reality check of Commonwealth Games 2010 venues

IS DELHI READY TO PLAY? Exactly two more years and our very own Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will be what The Nest was to Beijing 2008. Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium will be our very own Wukesong. Or will they? Times Citydoes a reality check of Commonwealth Games 2010 venues Ambika Pandit | TNN The Olympic fever is over, for now. After Beijing, the action moves to London for the 2012 games. But before that, New Delhi is to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010. While Beijing Olympics showcased years of preparations which translated into an impressive visual treat and jaw-dropping examples of cutting-edge infrastructure, the level of the Capital’s preparedness on the other hand for an event that is barely two years away is worrying to say the least. With images of Beijing fresh in everybody’s mind, Times City decided to do a reality check on the competition and training venues for the 2010 Games in the city which will see as many as 8,000 athletes participating. CENTRAL PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT Overall responsibility of the Games rests with the Sports Authority of India (SAI). CPWD, the consultant appointed by SAI is workingagainst a December 2009 deadline to renovate Games venues. Times City began its reality check with Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, venue of the opening and closing ceremonies. It will also host events like athletics, lawn bowling and weightlifting. Just 20% of the required work has been completed in the main stadium. CPWD has removed the four giant lights that were a city landmark for decades to make way for a roof over the spectators’ gallery as per international norms. The benches too are to be replaced by plush chairs to accommodate as many as 66,000 spectators. There will also be special centres for players, VIPs and media. CPWD has only recently started work on the 2,500-capacity auditorium that will serve as the weightlifting venue. Only 6% of the work has been completed. CPWD sources said the approvals for the temporary structure which will be the lawn bowling venue, have been obtained. Work on the structure is yet to begin. Asked how CPWD plans to meet the stringent 2009 deadline, senior officials said now that the necessary approvals have been got and the work has begun, the pace is expected to pick up and deadlines met, the official said. They do not sound as optimistic when talking about the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, venue of gymnastics, wrestling and cycling events. Work on the timber track cycling velodrome is yet to start. Still awaiting a green signal on certain specifications from the government, the CPWD has put March 2010 as a safe deadline for the project. About 30% of the work in the velodrome is done and CPWD has set a deadline of August 2009 for it. The roof and the large indoor stadium hall with a seating capacity of 16,000 is being overhauled and a warm-up area is also being created. The deadline for the wrestling area which will have a seating capacity for 7,500 is September 2009 and work has only just started. At Major Dhyanchand National Stadium three turfs and a warm-up area are to be carved out for hockey. At the site, construction is on in full swing. According to CPWD, work is on schedule to meet the November 2009 deadline. At the SP Mukheree Swimming Pool next to Talkatora Garden, the CPWD suffered a setback when after all the clearances it found that the land where the swimming pool and related facilities are to be developed for aquatics and diving competitions is located in the ridge area. The clearances took time and work on the swimming venue which will have a seating capacity of 5,000 could start only some time ago. Only 9% work is done and the project is already delayed by 46 days. The smallest of the projects is the Karnail Singh shooting range where a double storey structure and the play area have to be readied. The CPWD sees work starting here in about a month’s time. PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT As two cranes weighing 250 tonnes each lifted the giant truss measuring almost 107 metres in length and placed it on the pillars of the three storey structure coming up at Thyagaraja Stadium, the PWD moved a step closer towards its completion target of September 2009. Some 5,000 odd spectators will gather to cheer the players at the netball event which will be held here in 2010. Ten trusses are in place and another nine will complete the roof which will transform this venue into a spatial stadium with a dynamic design. Work on this Rs 297 crore green building project involves demolition of the old unattended structures and complete overhaul started in September 2007. PWD said nearly 60% of the work on the netball stadium is complete. It is to be a state-of-the-art building with electronically operated retractable seats. The indoor stadium will have facilities for athletics training. The Delhi government’s chosen venue for Republic Day and Independence Day functions, Chhatrasal Stadium in Model Town is going to be the exclusive training venue for athletics. With the Independence Day function over now, the PWD has called for tenders and expects work to start here by mid-October. The deadline is December 2009. The work here involves bringing down the small building and replacing it with a facilities block for players, VIPs and the media. The cinder track will be substituted with a specialised synthetic track and the concrete steps where the chairs are kept for spectators will be converted to Kota stone and high quality PVC chairs are to be fixed here. Ludlow Castle II is going to be the wrestling den. A dilapidated block at one end of the school is to be brought down to make way for the venue for training wrestlers. The ground floor will house facilities for wrestlers, the first floor is to house six rings and sitting areas for spectators. Work is yet to start. The PWD has prepared estimates for the project and is to send them to the education department for approval. The PWD hopes to start work by November end and finish it in about eight to nine months time. NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL CORPORATION Enter the main gate of Talkatora stadium and nothing seems like before. Construction material lies strewn all over the area and the wooden interiors of the main dome are gone. The floor is littered with chipped wood, thermocol and chunks of old glue holding the torn cladding together. The roof of the dome is also being brought down to allow light to flow in from empty sockets. NDMC officials said this is to be the venue for the boxing event. The wooden floor will be replaced with a state-of-the-art boxing ring, the benches with seats, warm-up cubicles and a new sports facility block under construction outside the indoor stadium will be linked to the boxing ring through a tunnel exclusively for players. The sports facility block is under construction and NDMC feels that it will be able to deliver on this project by the July 2009 deadline. However, the picture is not as rosy at the Shivaji Stadium where a training venue for hockey is to be carved out. While the old structure has been demolished by NDMC and excavation work has started, sources said it is the presence of about a dozen shops and a restaurants within the stadium premises which have slowed down things. The shopkeepers and the restaurant have gone to court over this. NDMC officials that the shops were given licences by NDMC which have expired in most cases. Thus they have been asked to move out as the stadium has to be renovated for the 2010 Games. But now that the matter is in various courts, the NDMC will have to wait for orders. The council expects the orders to come in by the end of this month or early next month. Till these are removed the complete site cannot be torn apart and the practice court with a capacity for 9000 cannot be created. The project has a deadline of November 2009. While officials agree that the delay is worrisome, they feel the project can be completed in time. DELHI DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY DDA is constructing two indoor stadiums for the 2010 Games at Siri Fort sports complex and Yamuna sports complex. Siri Fort will be used for badminton and squash and Yamuna for table tennis and archery (preliminary). Both these sports complexes will also be used as training venues. At Siri Fort, the existing training facilities will be refurbished for badminton, squash, tennis and aquatics. In case of the Yamuna sports complex, the facilities will be redeveloped for aquatics, archery training, lawn bowling, rhythmic gymnastics and hockey training. Saket sports complex will be refurbished as a training venue for badminton. But a closer look shows that though work at both competition venues has started, only 10% has been achieved so far. The deadline for both these stadiums is February 2010. In case of the training venues, the estimates are at a final stage and tenders are likely to be floated by the end of this month. The DDA has set a deadline of December 2009 before itself.

Images showing progress