Do you think that India and Delhi are ready for the Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games is a multi-sports championship held every 4 years with the goal of promoting relations between Commonwealth countries and celebrating their sporting and cultural heritage – thus making the Games the most visible activity of the Commonwealth. The Games started in 1930 and the last time it was held in Melbourne, Australia in 2006. The next Commonwealth Games in 2010 is scheduled to be held in New Delhi between 3rd and 14th October, 2010. This will be the largest multi-sport event ever conducted in Delhi and India in general, which has previously hosted the Asian Games twice in 1951 and 1982. This will be the second time the Games is being held in an Asian country – the first being Kualalumpur, Malaysia in 1998.
India has made her mark in all spheres of modern world – may be somewhat less in sports like this but the performances of Abhinav Bindra, Vijender Singh and Sushil Kumar in Beijing Olympics may well remind the world that we are not behind and are taking our little steps towards glory. We surely can hope a smooth build-up and a decent medal tally in the upcoming Games which would help the country to compete with China as a sports power and future Olympic host. But for now, let's keep our hopes and plans for the distant future aside and emphasize what we can do with the event coming up in just 14 months. New Delhi, with a population of over 15 million, is one of the largest cities in the world. Our country is one smartly emerging economy of the modern world and has achieved accolades and global appreciation in multiple realms. So, the national capital, in a way, rightly deserves a chance of hosting an event like Commonwealth Games, which in 2010, has 17 competing sports disciplines and 72 nations participating.
The crowded capital has started to transform itself to attract visitors from all over the world. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Michael Fennel and his inspection committee in July'09 gave a thumps up to the pace and quality of the preparations taking place in the capital. Along with more than 11,000 available hotel rooms for the gala event, Delhi Development Authority is readying over 5000 flats in South Delhi for tourist accommodation during the Games – which is being named as the Commonwealth Village. An amount of Rs.1770 crores has been allocated by the planning commission to the NCT of Delhi for improving infrastructure and beautification of the national capital. Moreover, for readying 12 competition venues, training facilities and for improving infrastructure of SAI centers all over the country, the government allocated Rs.2460 crores to the Sports Authority of India(SAI). A special sport injury centre is also planned at Safdarjung Hospital, announced on 23rd July,2009 by Health and Family welfare minister, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Among all these developments and positive aspects, the major threat remains to be of security. The blasts in New Delhi some time ago, that of Mumbai in November'08 and other heinous acts of terrorism in other cities of India compels us to rethink about this one major weakness of our country. The security arrangements of Delhi Police for this event has, however, reportedly impressed the inspection committee and that obviously inflates our hope of a safer ambience for the Games. The committee has also applauded the Government's role in continuing the funding despite economic downturn. The management in charge of the development of New Delhi as the venue of the Games need to avoid the delays and errors like the Delhi Metro mishap or the incident of a 7-feet deep pothole in a main road of the city in the recent past. These precautions and other fruitful measures taken in time will definitely make the Commonwealth Games in our national capital a huge success,
The most strong and sensible aspect of this venue is that India declared herself committed to prevent environmental degradation due to the Games and thus named it "Green Games". Planning for this goal, India has partnered with United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to make the event environmentally sustainable. To meet this goal, Delhi is providing a large upgrade to its mass transportation system by expanding the size of Metro network and increasing the capacities of public buses. It has equipped its Metro stations with rainwater-harvesting infrastructure, bus-stops with solar lights etc. The construction of buildings will also follow sustainable site-planning and design. Delhi is also undertaking a tree planting campaign, spearheading an anti-litter effort and promoting the use of renewable energy around the city and the country at large.
Thus, all these enthusiastic planning and works in accordance to it gives us a reason to believe that New Delhi is definitely prepared to be the venue of a world-wide popular sports event and thus make a mark in a way of its own. Our competition is with ourselves – we have to prove that we can successfully implement the capability and talent we already possess.
By
Suryatapa Ghosh
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