Damage control exercise on..!!

Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy, Delhi Cheif minister Shiela Dikshit and Organizing Committee Chief Suresh Kalmadi were quick to react to Commonwealth Games Federation Chief's concern that Delhi Commonwealth Games may be a partial failure.

In a letter to the local organizing committee, Fennell said that the current situation and delays in preparing for the Games poses a serious risk to the event. The letter expressed worry whether the event in India will match the standards set by the last two cities to host them - Manchester in 2002 and Melbourne in 2006.

Within hours of Fennell calling Prime Minister's intervention Jaipal Reddy said that preparations for the Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi were on track. Speaking on the topic, Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit said India's pride is involved with the Commonwealth Games success. She said the progress is being monitored on a weekly basis and all concerns in this regard are of little consequence at this stage. Earlier on Monday, the chief minister had accepted that preparations at some venues in the capital are behind schedule.

Indian officials are expressing confidence the country will successfully host an international sports event scheduled for next year after the Commonwealth Games Federation warned the event could collapse due to lack of preparation. The Commonwealth Games will be the most high-profile sporting event to be staged in India since 1982. Officials also point to the several alarms sounded about preparations before the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece, which were staged successfully.

But despite that assurance, officials admit India will have to race against time to successfully host the Games, because much of the work is behind schedule. A government report has said work on 14 of the 19 sports venues, that are to be built for the Games, is running late. So are nine transport projects meant to improve the city's infrastructure.

Meanwhile, The Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly is due to meet in New Delhi early next month to assess the work a year ahead of the October 2010 games.

3-Tier security ring for Commonwealth Games

More than 150,000 policemen, continuous aerial surveillance, about 2,000 closed-circuit cameras and latest security gadgets would be employed for extensive three-tier security ring that the Indian government has planned for 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Briefing the heads of missions of all Commonwealth countries on security arrangements for the sports event next October, the government said there was no specific threat to the Games but every precaution was being taken to make it incident-free. This includes taking adequate precaution even for tackling chemical or biological attacks, the organisers told the missions.

The diplomats were told that every vehicle meant for athletes would be put through an anti-sabotage test every morning while each of 23 venues would be completely sanitised seven days ahead of an event, Home Secretary G K Pillai said.
Dedicated lanes for vehicles carrying athletes and officials will be created with helicopters keeping an eye on all venues and routes, it was announced.
He said besides 80,000 Delhi Police personnel, the government will requisition services of an equal number of cops drawn from the central police organisations and state police forces. Besides the venues, all major locations in Delhi would be brought under the cover of CCTVs, Pillai said.

"We have two major sporting events before the Commonwealth Games-the World Hockey Championship and the World Swimming Championship," he said. "We will make a test run of the entire security arrangements during these two events."

Security for Commonwealth Games would also be one of the main points for discussion during the three-day biannual conference of police chiefs of all states scheduled for next week.

The home secretary said it was important to tighten security across the country, considering that many athletes and visitors were expected to utilise the occasion to travel to important tourist places.

Tourism and Infra to get a boost

The Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held in the first two weeks of October 2010, are set to change the face of Delhi and NCR. With approximately a million tourists expected to land in India to watch the grand spectacle, the push will be great for the Indian tourism industry.

Delhi has hosted the Asian Games in 1951 and 1982. This is the first time Delhi is playing host to the commonwealth games. Infact, this is only the second time that the games are being held in Asia.

Read article, Delhi: City of flyovers

Not only are the Games going to benefit the Indian tourism industry in a big way, these are also going to boost various job opportunities in sectors like hospitality, travel, aviation, services, who are going to hire more employees in order to handle the large influx of tourists.

There are various challenges in front of Commonwealth games organizing committee like ensuring accommodation requirements. For this the government is considering innovative options like registering Bead and Breakfast service providers, and even considering camping options in NCR to augment the current hotel development projects.

Delhi government is also serious about providing comfortable commute to the visitors. 10 of the 11 Commonwealth Games venue will be linked by Metro in time for the games. City will also have a dedicated Metro line from the airport to Cannaught Place.

A four-lane, 2.2 km underground stretch from Ring Road to Lodhi will link the Games Village to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, reducing traveling time for athletes. The new eight-lane expressway from Gurgaon to Delhi is already functional. Government is in the process of procuring another 1,100 new low floor, high-capacity air-conditioned buses to ease commuting.

Infact, all the efforts being put in by Delhi government are beginning to show results. Today, Delhi has a world class Metro transportation. More than 100 flyovers have come up in last 8 years. Movement at all focal points of Delhi like Dhaula Kuan, AIIMS, and connectivity to NOIDA has been smoothened out. The pollution levels in Delhi are much less than what they were 10 years ago. The city has new GREEN LOOK because of millions of trees planted along the roads. Infact, Green and Pink are the new colours chosen by the government for the city.

All in all, the tourism and infrastructure are set to get a huge boost because of the Games.

Delhi Metro to be ready for 2010 Commonwealth Games!

Delhi Metro chief E. Sreedharan has committed that all their projects would be completed before the Commonwealth Games next year.

DMRC confirmed that recent mishap will not have any delay whatsoever on the overall completion of the Delhi Metro projects. Ongoing Phase-II of the Delhi Metro will provide easy Metro connectivity to 10 of the 11 venues of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Delhi Metro is currently operating on various routes totalling 70 km across Delhi.

Recent assertion from the Metro management comes as a good news for foreign and domestic tourists planning to visit India on the occasion of commonwealth games. The ride to different games venues will be smoother and tourists will be traveling in a truly world class mode of transport.

Delhi's new Carpool Scheme

Delhi government plans to launch the Pan City Mega Carpool Scheme before the Commonwealth Games 2010.

The ride sharing scheme aims to provide a simple way to encourage car owners to share their vehicles with other car owners, thereby resulting in fewer cars on city roads. It has been proposed to enroll thousands of car owners, subject to verification of their credentials, into a single mega carpool and issue the members secure, smart identity cards as well.

The member cars will be fitted with a special hardware device comprising of a card reader, global positioning system (GPS) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). The device can read the smart card based photo identity card of a member, sense the location of the car and transmit this data digitally to a central agency. The rider will only be required to tap the smart ID card at the beginning as well as the end of the ride and all the information regarding the driver and the rider would be sent to the central server. A member of the carpool scheme may give a ride to any of the enrolled members who have a common or along-the-way travel destination. By giving rides, the member will earn mileage points which can be redeemed as cash or family members can avail of them by using the car pools.

According to the transport department, almost 50 to 60 per cent of the road space is used by an estimated two million car owners in Delhi, although they meet just 20 per cent of the commuting demand.

The scheme will ensure safety of the passengers as a central server will keep track of all shared rides, including vehicle number and owner and the time a particular rider boards the car.

The scheme, if successful will augument Delhi's improving public transport infrastructure which includes Metro and BRT scheme. However, it remains to be seen whether Delhi will accept this scheme considering its high crime rate.

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Video: Delhi Metro

No Wi-Fi at Commonwealth Games 2010

Delhi government has dropped the idea of providing high-speed Internet services through Wi-Fi across the city for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The move has come after it was felt that wireless fidelity (WiFi) is not a fool-proof mechanism in view of militants using it to co-ordinate and carry out attacks.

However, travellers visiting Delhi for Commonwealth Games need not worry about missing on important e-mails and communication. Delhi has one of the world's largest density of Cybercafés with usage rates as low as $0.50/hour.

Visitors are advised to carry a photo identification with them as it is now mandatory in India to present the same while logging on to internet from Cybercafe.

Camping at Commonwealth Games 2010

India's Ministry of Tourism has informed that they will explore the possibilities for tent accommodation in Delhi during 2010 Commonwealth Games. The decision is taken partly to make the games more exciting for spectators and also considering estimated shortfall of hotel rooms required for the tourists during the Commonwealth Games 2010 in the National Capital Region (NCR) . According to sources, discussions were held recently at the last tourism stakeholders meeting.

Representatives of the hotel associations have asked the Ministry to set up luxury tents as an alternative mode of accommodation. A few luxury tent operators from Pushkar, Rajasthan have shown interest and have approached the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI). The tent operators want to set up tents if suitable land is available for a one-month period.

However, sources revealed that, representatives of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) as well as Urban Development Ministry have not taken up the proposal officially under the pretext that suitable land may not be available in Delhi for camping. At the same time, Keshni Anand Arora, Secretary, Haryana Tourism has evinced interest in the proposal and agreed to explore suitable land for the same in Gurgaon.

History of the 'Friendly Games'

The concept of a united Commonwealth sporting event was coined during rebirth of the Olympic Games, and was first formally propagated by Reverend Astley Cooper in The Times newspaper in 1891.

In 1911, the 'Festival of Empire' was held in London to celebrate the coronation of King George V. As part of the festivities, an Inter-Empire Championships was held in which teams from Commonwealth Nations including Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom competed in events such as boxing, wrestling, swimming and athletics. A trophy in the form of a silver cup, 2ft 6in high and weighing 340oz, the gift of Lord Lonsdale, was presented to the winning country, which was Canada.

The first practical steps were taken to organise the British Empire Games in 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. Mr M. M. (Bobby) Robinson of Canada called a meeting of representatives of all Empire countries, and made the proposal that the British Empire Games should be held. The first British Empire (Commonwealth) Games were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada where 11 countries took part. In total 400 athletes represented their respective countries in 6 sports and 59 events.

The Games have been conducted every four years except for 1942 and 1946 when they were disrupted due to World War II. Since its inception the event has seen many changes, not least in its name. The name, British Empire Games, was changed in 1950 to British Empire and Commonwealth Games. In 1966, it was changed to British Commonwealth Games. It was the 1978 Games in Edmonton that saw this unique, world class, multi-sports event change its name to the Commonwealth Games.

Often referred to as the ‘Friendly Games’ only single competition sports had been on the programme from 1930 up to and including the 1994 Games in Victoria.

The 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur saw the introduction of team sports with nations taking part in cricket (50 over game), hockey (men and women), netball (women) and rugby 7's (men).

In Manchester in 2002 hockey, netball and rugby 7's were part of the programme again and at the 2006 Games in Melbourne basketball was added to the list of team sports.

Hockey, netball and rugby 7’s will again feature in XIX edition of the games at Delhi in 2010.

Click here to read more about Commonwealth Nations.

Commonwealth Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, established on 11 December 1931 is an organisation of 53 independent member states. 

Most of the states were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values and goals, as outlined in the Singapore Declaration.These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism, and world peace.

The Commonwealth is an inter-governmental organisation through which countries with diverse social, political, and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status. Its activities are carried out through the permanent Commonwealth Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General; biennial Meetings between Commonwealth Heads of Government; and the Commonwealth Foundation, which facilitates activities of non-governmental organisations in the so-called 'Commonwealth Family'.

32 members of the Commonwealth Nations are Republics, 16 members are Commonwealth Realms and 5 members have distinct Monarchs.
The Head of the Commonwealth is a ceremonial position currently held by Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth II is also the monarch of sixteen members of the Commonwealth, also called the Commonwealth realms. As each realm is an independent kingdom, the Queen, as monarch, holds a distinct title for each of the realms.


Read more about history and traditions of Commonwealth Games.

Commonwealth Games 2010

Host city: New Delhi, India 
Motto: "COME OUT AND PLAY"
Nations participating: 72 Commonwealth Teams
Athletes participating: TBA
Events: 17 disciplines  Queen's Baton Relay: 29 October 2009

Opening ceremony: 03 October 2010
Closing ceremony: 14 October 2010

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