CGF chief visiting Pune for inspection of Youth CWG preparations

Mumbai, Apr 26 (UNI) Commonwealth Games Federation chief Mike Fennell is visiting Pune in June to look into the preparations of the 2008 Youth Commonwealth Games, which the Maharashtrian city will host between October 12 and 18.

Addressing a press conference here today, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President and Member of Parliament from Pune Suresh Kalmadi said, ''Mike Fennell, the head of the Commonwealth Games Federation, is scheduled to visit Pune on June 5 to have a look at its infrastructure.'' He said around 1000 athletes and 250 officials will take part in the Games.

''Pune has now an international airport and all the necessary infrastructure necessary for holding these Games,'' Mr Kalmadi said, while admitting that the stadia and sports city built in his home town's outskirts had not been maintained well after the end of the National Games 12 years ago.

''It's for the municipal corporation with help from the State Government to maintain the infrastructure built. The situation is nothing new to Pune. It's the same case with Bangalore, Imphal and other cities,'' the IOA chief said.

Mr Kalmadi said the way out was to involve private firms to maintain them. ''They would be interested if they are given tax exemptions,'' he added.

He also welcomed the move of the Indian Cricket Board to set up a corpus of Rs 50 crore for supporting the training and coaching of promising sportspersons involved in Olympic sports.

''It's a good step, which I had proposed to the board when Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya was in charge. It's a good start,'' Mr Kalmadi added.

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