New Delhi:
Most of the venues for the Commonwealth Games have missed several deadlines. But they are all almost complete now and have been formally handed over to the Organising Committee (OC).
Despite all the criticism, Chairman of the Organising Committee, Suresh Kalmadi, is confident that most of the venues would be ready to host an event in just an hour's notice.
We take you on a tour of the Commonwealth Games' venues for a reality check:
It was pouring in the Capital, but the media didn't want to miss this great opportunity to get a sneak peek of some of the venues for the Commonwealth Games. NDTV too joined in.
Our first stop was the Talkatora Stadium, the venue for boxing.
"Everything is in place. It has been raining but there has been no leakage. You can see for yourself," said the Secretary General, OC, Lalit Bhanot.
Yes, Mr. Bhanot is correct this one time. It is not leaking right now. Hopefully it will stay that way.
The stadium has been complete for a long time now, and has even hosted two events.
Next stop is the SP Mukherjee Swimming Complex.
The 10-lane Olympic size pool looks quite nice but some technical flaws caught our attention.
The diving tower's staircase is unusually narrow, just about two-feet wide, which forced the engineers to put up a board saying: Mind your Head.
In the area just before the diving boards, the height of the place is only six feet. Now swimmers are usually quite tall, and when they come here and try and stand straight, they're bound to hurt their heads
"It's outstanding, if you ask me choose which is the best venue, I can't choose because they are all so world class," said Suresh Kalmadi.
Sorry Mr. Kalmadi. That may not apply to the swimming complex just yet, but the Thyagaraj Stadium is truly world class. The venue, which will host the netball events, is also India's first eco-friendly complex.
And that brought us to our last stop of the day, the Siri Fort Sports Complex. Movable side walls at the squash court convert the court from a doubles to a singles court.
The badminton court has hosted a test event as well. But the rest of the infrastructure will be truly tested once the athletes start coming in later this month.