New Delhi:
The rugby stadium for the Commonwealth Games is ready. It was inaugurated on Thursday by Sports Minister MS Gill and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit at the Delhi University Campus. The Rugby Sevens event will be held at this venue, which has been built at a total cost of Rs 300 crore. The state-of-the-art complex, spread over an area of 10,000 metres, will also be the training venue for netball, boxing, women's wrestling and athletics.
But elsewhere things don't look as good. The roof of the Yamuna Sports Complex, that will host the table tennis and archery events has collapsed. That will take at least two weeks to fix, something the Archery Association is not amused about. "Greater the delay, greater the cost and the compromise with the quality and problems will be created", said the Archery Association chief VK Malhotra.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is building the Yamuna sports complex says things are under control, a sentiment echoed by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. It's Secretary General Lalit Bhanot said, "The roof has not crashed, water blockage of drains is different from a roof collapse."
This is not the first monsoon setback for the games. Last week rain water entered the badminton and squash stadia at another Games venue. All civic agencies have said the stadia will be ready on time. The Games, which begin on October 3, will have 17 disciplines to be held at six venue clusters and five stand-alone stadia. The big worry now is that delays may not leave enough time to properly test the facilities at the different venues.