Delhi Hotels

IN LESS THAN one year from now New Delhi would be the center of the world when the Commonwealth Games 2010 commence. Almost all the changes you see around New Delhi at present and in not so distant past are connected to the Commonwealth Games. Whether it is the widening of the roads, a new concern for our environment, the extension of the metro or smoking, everything is somehow or the other related to the Commonwealth Games.

The Commonwealth Games 2010 would be held from October 3 to 14, 2010, but the 10-day event is all set to change New Delhi forever.

New Delhi would be the hosting the Commonwealth Games for the first time in the organization’s 90-year-old history and would be the second city in Asia to do so. Kuala Lumpur had hosted the event in 1998.

New Delhi won the bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2003 by 46 votes to 22 against Hamilton. For those who have heard the name of Hamilton for the first time, it is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Indian Olympic Committee president Suresh Kalmadi who led the bid from the Indian side had promised at that time to host "the best, most progressive Commonwealth Games ever."

The government of India would sanction the budget for both the capital cost and the cost of operations incurred in hosting the Commonwealth Games. Overall the government of New Delhi has been sanctioned a budget of 5, 200 crores for infrastructural development which would be disbursed over a period of four years.

The agencies involved in the construction of sports infrastructure are the SAI, DDA, AITA, NDMC, DU and the government of the national capital region (NCR) of New Delhi.

The first and major construction in this regard is the Commonwealth Games village on the Yamuna riverbed. The DDA is the agency responsible for its construction. The games village is proposed to have 14 blocks, 978 flats and 8,354 beds with attached toilet and air conditioning.

Other new sports infrastructure include new outdoor greens for Lawn Bowls, a new indoor stadium for weightlifting, new indoor stadia for wrestling, badminton, squash, table tennis and netball. A new facility for rugby would be constructed at New Delhi University.

Apart from the games what would really affect the life in New Delhi is the ‘development’ of the city infrastructure. Here the planning is almost revolutionary. Even 25 per cent of the proposed construction could have won a political party any election.

Ten flyovers are to be constructed along with the widening of all ‘important’ roads leading to the games venues. A new tunnel project to connect the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium with the games village has been proposed to reduce the travel time to and from the games village.

New Delhi would have 6,000 additional buses by the year 2010. Out of these 1,100 buses would be low floor, high capacity air-conditioned buses.

Measures are underway to ensure that New Delhi gets 5,880 MW of power by 2010. At present the power supply to New Delhi varies between 3000 MW to 2900 MW per day.

Indira Gandhi International airport is to have brand new international and domestic terminals along with an aero bridge connecting the two. And the New Delhi Metro would be extended up to the airport and connect it to the New Delhi railway station.

The government of New Delhi wants a smoke-free city ahead of the Commonwealth and has joined hands with the Bloomberg Global Initiative in order to achieve that end. Chandigarh is the only smoke-free city in India at present.

So far as Delhi accommodation is concerned the ministry of tourism is in touch with various land owning agencies for identification of hotel sites. DDA has so far identified 34 sites for the construction of hotels in Gaziabad, Noida Hotels and Delhi Bed and Breakfast, which would provide New Delhi with 6,600 hotel rooms. Apart from this, ministry of finance has granted a tax holiday for five years for two, three and four star hotels set up between this financial year (2007) and the end of financial year 2009-10, in the NCR of New Delhi and districts of Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar and Faridabad.

The government is planning to stop analogue broadcast in New Delhi before the commonwealth games. Prasar Bharati is to start high definition TV service on an experimental basis soon. New Delhi is to become the first city in India to have digital broadcast through conditional access system by the time commonwealth games arrive.

Even the tourist guides would not be left untouched as the tourism department would soon prepare guidelines for recruitment, registration and monitoring of guides in New Delhi.

Moreover, a Commonwealth Games Volunteer Programme is to be launched, as New Delhi would require more than 50,000 volunteers for the games.

Dreams vs Reality

So far as infrastructure is concerned, the status report published by the Organizing Committee Commonwealth Games reveals that only on five venues has the work started, that too only recently.

The first of these venues is the Commonwealth games village on the Yamuna. According to the report the work on it started in August.
The second venue is the venue for the Opening ceremony, work on which according to the said report started in August too. The opening ceremony is to be held at Jawaharlal Nehru sports complex, which is also the venue for Lawn Bowls and Weightlifting. The infrastructure for these sports is still in the design phase, with the final designs yet being developed.

Then comes the Thyagraj Sports Complex, which is the venue for netball. The report reveals that work has started on the venue middle of September.

Work on the venue for Gymnastics, in Indira Gandhi sports complex is to start a couple of days from now. The complex would also be the site for cycling and wrestling. The concept design for the former game is still being developed, while final designs are being developed for the venue of the latter game.

Then we come to hockey. Major Dhyan Chand Stadium would host the national game. The report states that further work keeping the games in mind started at the fag end of October.

Swimming competitions would be held at the Dr SP Mukherjee Swimming stadium. The final designs the infrastructural upgradation of the stadium is still in the design phase.

Talkatora Indoor stadium would host Boxing, the upgradation for which started from November this year, according to the status report.

The work on the venues for badminton, squash, table tennis, tennis and rugby are yet to start while the work on the venues for Archery (both qualification and Finals) and shooting are still in the design phase. Also, the Media Press Centre and Broadcasting Centre and the Accreditation Centre and warehouse are still clipped to the drawing board.

Projects for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006 were completed and their delivery had started nearly a couple of years before the opening ceremony. But in India’s case project completion would be mission accomplished