Prince Charles to read Queen's message, President Patil to deliver CWG opening address

New Delhi, Oct 3 (ANI): The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, will read out the Queen's message and President Pratiba Devisingh Patil will deliver an address to signal the commencement of the XIX Commonwealth Games at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main venue of the 2010 Games, during the opening ceremony to be held here on Sunday.

The Queen's baton that continued its journey through all the important places including the Games Village, will reach its final destination, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here today.

Prince Charles will receive the Baton and will read the Queen's message on this occasion.

President Patil will deliver an address to signal the commencement of the Games.

The opening ceremony will begin at 6: 30 p.m. with hosts of the previous edition of the Games in 2006 Australia, leading the march past followed by other countries in alphabetical order, while hosts India will be at the last with Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bhindra being its flag bearer.

The two-hour cultural extravaganza will highlight the rhythms and ragas of India and would be performed by over 7,000 artistes including the top names from the Indian music industry including Oscar winning music director A.R. Rahman and singer cum composer Shankar Mahadevan.

The highlight of the opening of the games will be an Aerostate that prop-up images of leaders, important monuments and themes representing various periods in the Indian history.

The security around the 41 Games venues has been tightened and over 80,000 policemen have been deployed for the purpose. (ANI)