Slow pace of progress worries Mike Fennell
By ANIFriday, March 12, 2010
NEW DELHI - Commonwealth Games Federation President Michael Fennel has advised the organising committee of this year’s event to speed up work in areas such as proper venues, transport and catering of the participating teams.
Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Fennell said: “We have noticed a lot of progress. We still have areas of concern and there is a lot of work that needs to be done. We have discussed all this openly and practically with the organising committee already. We feel confident that we would be achieving or even surpassing expectations.”
He also hailed Suresh Kalmadi, the Chairman of the Organising Committee of Commonwealth Games for his dedication in implementing the ideas as per the guidelines of the CGF.
“We visited the villages and everyone was impressed by what has been prepared for the athletes in the village. The buildings are excellent and certainly the village outline and concept is one that ensures that we will have one of the best villages that any game at anywhere will have,” added Fennell.
According to the CWG website, the village is being built at a cost of 230.7 million dollars (including the residential zone) and is spread over an area of 63.5 hectares (158.4 acres).he village is also equipped with training areas for athletics (400 m eight-lane synthetic track and separate area for Throwing Events), swimming (50×25m, kids and leisure pool), weightlifting, wrestling and a fitness centre.
The village has 14 blocks, 34 towers and 1,168 air-conditioned flats to comfortably accommodate 8,000 athletes and team officials.
Reviewing all these projects, Fennell issued a mild warning to the organising committee and to the local authorities of Indian government to hasten the pace of work at the various venues and allied facilities.
He also expressed concern about venues, specifically pointing out that the swimming events venue (the Talkatora Stadium), the athletics venue (Nehru Stadium) as well as the weightlifting venue being constructed nearby happened to remain as ‘top concerns’. (ANI)
