New Delhi:
The renovated Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, the gymnastics venue for this year's Commonwealth Games, was inaugurated by Sports Minister M S Gill and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in New Delhi on Saturday.
The 14,500-seater state-of-the-art venue, which has been reconstructed at a cost of Rs 240 crore and has a built-up area of 72,425 square metre, is the largest indoor stadium in India.
Also present on the occasion were Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi, State Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare Pratik P Patil, Sindhushree Khullar, Secretary, Union Ministry of Sports and Sayan Chatterjee, Director General of Sports Authority of India.
"This is an outstanding stadium and a remarkable engineering marvel. It is equipped with all the modern facilities and is the largest covered and air-conditioned stadium in India," Gill said after inaugurating the stadium.
"Through the Commonwealth Games, Delhi will show to the world that it is far modern than others. Each stadium was going to surprise the visitors from all over the world. We are young India and young India will deliver the best games."
The stadium is equipped with green-building features like thermal insulation of entire roof, gypsum board partitions and wall panellings, external glazing with low energy tinted glasses and energy efficient lighting fixtures.
It is also equipped with water conservation features like harvesting by recharging of existing lakes in the complex with rain water.
The entire stadium will be under electronic surveillance through fixed and PTZ cameras connected to the central control room, which has an integrated network for connecting various facilities to meet the operational requirements.
"This stadium is the most beautiful and green stadium in Delhi. All the parties concerned have worked hard and all other stadiums built are also no less than others. With the pace of the preparations, we are now assured of delivering the best games ever and no more jittery feelings as we were having few months ago," Dikshit said.
Kalmadi said it's a dream come true for him as he has fulfilled his promise to present world class infrastructure in the form of the Indira Gandhi stadium.
"When the participants come to India for Commonwealth Test events they will themselves find stadium above their expectations. Every infrastructure is of global standards. All the 71 participating nations will find the preparations satisfactory," Kalmadi said.
He said all the test events would be over by July.