Slow work at Games sites: Fennel presses panic button

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Commonwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennel rang the alarm bell on Sunday, when he asked for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to discuss the slow pace of work at various Commonwealth games sites.

CJ: Akbar Majid

Mon, Sep 14, 2009 12:44:53 IST

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Commonwealth Games News :

WITH MOST of the construction work for Commonwealth Games 2010 behind schedule, panic is slowly setting in among most of the stakeholders as they realise that there is major disaster at their hands if the work is not completed on time.

None other than Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Mike Fennel rang the alarm bell on Sunday (September 13), when he asked for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to discuss the slow pace of work at various Commonwealth games sites.

Putting a question mark on the way the Organising Committee has handled the games work, Fennel said that he personally wanted to brief the Prime Minister over inadequate preparations as only one year is left for the games. He also wanted to seek the Prime Minister's inputs in developing an appropriate recovery plan and to ensure some urgent action to bring the games back on track.

Castigating the operations of the games, Mike Fennel said that while procurement process were stagnant, there was total lack of empowerment of the functional areas.

The wakeup call given by the CGF president, assume significance after a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) observed that work on 13 out of the 19 sports venues was late by 25 to 50 per cent of targets.

It is pertinent to mention that work is behind schedule at the games village with training venues for athletics, swimming, weightlifting and wrestling yet to be completed. The work at the high tech Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Aquatic complex is at halfway stage and a lot needs to be done to finish the project. Other venues, where work needs to be doubled up are Shivaji Stadium, Ludlow Castle, Jamial Milia Islamia University and Talkatora stadium.

Not only is the work at venues delayed but a number of infrastructure projects including flyovers, roads, bridges are behind the schedule and in a number of cases, the Delhi government has delinked them from the games.

An assessment of the entire work will be done by the CGF Assembly next month, when it meets on October 13 and 14. Due to the incomplete work, the CGF has been forced to shift or postpone a number of events, which were planned as test events.

Though, the CGF games chief Mike Fennel also reiterated that he had faith in the commitment of the stakeholders but said that the preparations for the games were significantly behind schedule and that was a major cause for worry.

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