High level meet reviews plans for Commonwealth Games

New Delhi, July 6 (UNI) Delhi Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna today convened a high level plenary meeting to review the preparedness status for the Commonwealth Games 2010 at Raj Niwas here today.

The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar, Chairman, Organising Committee of CWG 2010 Suresh Kalmadi, senior functionaries of the Central and Delhi Governments along with representatives from Armed Forces and business chambers like CII, ASSOCHAM, FICCI.

Presentations were made by various departments and agencies on projects related to Commonwealth Games 2010 and bottlenecks were addressed on the occasion.

The Lt Governor stated that as this is the first time India would be hosting Commonwealth Games, it is an opportunity that must be utilised to showcase the country and the host city of Delhi in best of light.

He assured all co-operation from Government of Delhi in respect of construction of Games Village and various special projects undertaken by DDA.

Mr Khanna said the plenary meeting was an effort to bring together all stakeholders on board to monitor key areas of responsibilities and evolve mechanisms to resolve bottlenecks and inter-agency problems.

The Cabinet Secretary in his brief identified three major areas of focus for the CWG 2010 -- civil infrastructure, sports infrastructure and tourism, along with business proposition.

Mr Kalmadi expressed satisfaction on the action taken on ground.

Around 10000 athletes and sports officials, are expected to come to Delhi during October 3 to 14, 2010 from 71 countries of the world. Besides, a huge number of sport tourists are also expected to visit the capital during the period.

The construction work of Commonwealth Games village is expected to be complete by November 2009.

The enhanced requirements of accommodation to be generated in the National Capital Region (Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon)was also discussed.

An Ordinance on Bed and Breadfast scheme with interested residents of Delhi is being brought to ease out the problem. Further the Government is also likely to construct several hotels including budget hotels specially for the Games.

He said there is a considerable amount of enthusiasm among the business fraternity as there was enormous scope of new business opportunities being generated and made available due to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

It was also decided that the Lt Governor and Cabinet Secretary would continue to hold such review meetings to monitor progress of the projects connected to the Games every quarter. The next review meeting is scheduled in November.

UNI