For 12 days, Delhi will be the venue for one of the biggest sporting events India has ever hosted. After 66 days, Delhi’s makeover will, hopefully, be completed. Delhi is slated to emerge from its cocoon of blue Delhi metro barricades and grey cement and sand at under-construction sites, into what we hope will be a world class city; a world class city which would be ready to host 8000 athletes and officials from 71 Commonwealth countries, representing one thirds of the world’s population. Keeping in mind the mammoth task that is to be accomplished, DU Beat undertakes a reality check as to the state of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games.
The website for the Commonwealth Games boasts of the Games being held in 23 world class competition venues and 32 Training venues. The Ministry of Youth Affairs claims that most venues have been completed, while the Games Village, the Table Tennis facility at the Yamuna Sports Complex, the renovation work at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the Dr. S.P.M. Swimming Pool Complex, among several other training venues, ‘will be completed shortly’. All the games venues are to be handed over to the Organizing Committee on August 1, so that crucial overlaying work can be carried out. Given the deadline, the incomplete works are a cause for concern. Also, some of the projects that have been completed on paper have incomplete accompanying projects like landscaping, approach roads and clearing of debris.
The pace of ongoing work and the obvious level of incompletion that can be seen in supporting infrastructure projects have the responsible authorities scrambling for cover from the opprobrium they face. The Barapullah elevated road corridor which will provide a link between the Games Village and the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is slated to be completed latest by August end. But there are still very wide gaps in the basic elevated structure as it passes near Defence Colony and even bigger gaps near Nizamuddin. The renovation work at Connaught Place is also far from complete, adding to the traffic and parking woes in the area. Even the blue-eyed boy of infrastructure projects, The Delhi Metro seems to be running behind schedule. The Violet line, which will link Badarpur to Central Secretariat is supposed to be completed by August. However, several portions of the basic elevated structure have not been completed in areas like Sarita Vihar. Another thing that calls into question the quality of work being done, if at all, in the de silting of drains is the current state of water logging due to the rains.
While all this gives us a lot to worry about, solace can be found in completion of the swanky new terminal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Another encouraging thing that can be seen is the introduction of the new low floor DTC buses on several routes in the city. While the significant progress that has been made in the past few months cannot be denied, many loose ends still need to be tied up.
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